How To Get Parent Element In Jquery

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When working with HTML elements and jQuery, it is often necessary to traverse the Document Object Model (DOM) and find the parent element of a specific element. In this blog post, we will cover how to find the parent element of an HTML element using jQuery.

Using the parent() Method

The simplest way to find the parent element of an HTML element using jQuery is to use the parent() method. This method returns the direct parent of the specified element.

For example, consider the following HTML structure: 

    <div class="container">
        <ul>
            <li class="list-item">Item 1</li>
            <li class="list-item">Item 2
                <span class="inner-element">Inner Element</span>
            </li>
            <li class="list-item">Item 3</li>
        </ul>
    </div>

To get the parent of the element with the class “inner-element”, using jQuery, we can write the following code: 

    $(document).ready(function(){
        var parentElement = $('.inner-element').parent();
        console.log(parentElement);
    });

This code will output the parent element, which is the <li> with the text “Item 2”.

Using the parents() Method

In some cases, you may want to find an ancestor that is not the immediate parent. In this case, you can use the parents() method, which traverses up the DOM tree and returns all ancestors of the given element.

For example, to find all the ancestors of the “inner-element” class element, you can write the following code: 

    $(document).ready(function(){
        var ancestors = $('.inner-element').parents();
        console.log(ancestors);
    });

This code will output all the ancestors of the “inner-element” class, including the <li>, <ul>, and <div> elements.

You can also pass a selector to the parents() method to filter the results. For example, to only get the <div> ancestor, you can write: 

    $(document).ready(function(){
        var divAncestor = $('.inner-element').parents('div');
        console.log(divAncestor);
    });

This code will output only the <div> ancestor with the class “container”.

Conclusion

In conclusion, jQuery makes it easy to find parent elements in the DOM using the parent() and parents() methods. Whether you need to find the immediate parent or an ancestor further up the tree, these methods make navigating the DOM simple and efficient.