Categories

.next()

Categories: Tree Traversal

.next( [ selector ] )Returns: jQuery

Description: Get the immediately following sibling of each element in the set of matched elements. If a selector is provided, it retrieves the next sibling only if it matches that selector.

  • .next( [ selector ] )

    version added: 1.0

    selector   A string containing a selector expression to match elements against.

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .next() method allows us to search through the immediately following sibling of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements.

The method optionally accepts a selector expression of the same type that we can pass to the $() function. If the immediately following sibling matches the selector, it remains in the newly constructed jQuery object; otherwise, it is excluded.

Consider a page with a simple list on it:

<ul>
   <li>list item 1</li>
   <li>list item 2</li>
   <li class="third-item">list item 3</li>
   <li>list item 4</li>
   <li>list item 5</li>
</ul>

If we begin at the third item, we can find the element which comes just after it:

$('li.third-item').next().css('background-color', 'red');

The result of this call is a red background behind item 4. Since we do not supply a selector expression, this following element is unequivocally included as part of the object. If we had supplied one, the element would be tested for a match before it was included.

  • Find the very next sibling of each disabled button and change its text "this button is disabled".

    HTML:
    <div><button disabled="disabled">First</button> - <span></span></div>
      <div><button>Second</button> - <span></span></div>
    
      <div><button disabled="disabled">Third</button> - <span></span></div>
    CSS:
    
    
      span { color:blue; font-weight:bold; }
      button { width:100px; }
      
    Code:
    $("button[disabled]").next().text("this button is disabled");
  • Find the very next sibling of each paragraph. Keep only the ones with a class "selected".

    HTML:
    <p>Hello</p>
    
      <p class="selected">Hello Again</p>
      <div><span>And Again</span></div>
    Code:
    $("p").next(".selected").css("background", "yellow");