What does '>' mean in javascript?

Question

What does the > sign mean in (#todoList > div) in the following javascript?

$('#btnClear').click(function () {
    $('#todoList > div').each(function () {
        var entity = $(this).data('entity');
        $todo.context.TodoEntries.remove(entity);
    });
    $todo.context.saveChanges(updateView);
});

In the Html File the #todoList is the id of a div.

<div id="todoList"></div>

And in this statement

 $('#wrapper>div:not(#providerSelection)')

What is ":not"?

This is actually like a basic CSS selector. You feed that into Jquery to select elements. Read more here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/CSS/Getting_started/Selectors — thatidiotguy, Jul 01 '13 at 15:53
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3225891/what-does-mean-in-css-rules — Brad, Jul 01 '13 at 15:53
Please read: [CSS selectors](http://www.w3.org/TR/selectors/). — David Thomas, Jul 01 '13 at 15:54

Claudio Redi · Answer 1 · 2013-07-01T15:58:53.153

It's a child selector. This is not a javascript feature but css. jQuery implement it on its selector engine but it has nothing to do with javascript.

A child selector matches when an element is the child of some element. A child selector is made up of two or more selectors separated by ">".

The following rule sets the style of all P elements that are children of BODY:

body > P { line-height: 1.3 }

The following example combines descendant selectors and child selectors:

div ol>li p

It matches a P element that is a descendant of an LI; the LI element must be the child of an OL element; the OL element must be a descendant of a DIV. Notice that the optional white space around the ">" combinator has been left out.

It's a Selectors API feature, and the JavaScript DOM implements its `querySelector[All]` methods with most of that API. jQuery/Sizzle uses `.querySelectorAll()` as the default for its DOM selection. — , Jul 01 '13 at 16:46

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 01 '13 at 15:59

7

It's not JavaScript syntax but CSS selector syntax, here passed in a JQuery selector.

It's the "direct child" selector.

It means it selects all div elements that are child nodes one level down from the element with id todoList.

This would apply to elements with id A and B here :

<div id="todoList">
  <div id=A>
     <div id=C>
  </div>
  <span id=D></span>
  <div id=B></div>
</div>

edited Jul 01 '13 at 15:59

Derek Peterson

593
2
8

answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:53

Denys Séguret

372,613
87
782
758

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:53

0

$("#todoList > div") means select div elements that are direct descendants (children) of the element with id="todoList".

answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:53

Samuel Reid

1,756
12
22

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:53

0

its a css selector, no meaning in javascript itself except "greater than", in css it means the previous selectors direct child.

answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:53

Patrick Evans

41,991
6
74
87

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 01 '13 at 15:54

Its a child selector of parent

Selects all direct child elements specified by “child” of elements specified by “parent”.

Means child div inside #todoList

SEE API --> http://api.jquery.com/child-selector/

The child combinator (E > F) can be thought of as a more specific form of the descendant combinator (E F) in that it selects only first-level descendants.

What does '>' mean in javascript?

5 Answers5