Beginning JavaScript® and CSS Development with jQuery

Appendix B. Selectors Supported by jQuery

The following table contains the selector syntax that you are able to use with jQuery's Selector API:

Selector	Description
Simple Selectors
#id	Selects a single element via the ID name specified in the element's id attribute.
element	Selects one or more elements by the element name, for example, form, div, input, and so on.
.className	Selects one or more elements via a class name present in the element's class attribute. Individual elements may also have multiple class names.
*	The universal or wildcard selector; selects all elements.
grouping, multiple, selectors	Selects one or more elements by chaining multiple selectors together with commas.
Hierarchy
ancestor descendent	Selects one or more elements based on an ancestral relationship.
parent > child	Selects one or more elements based on a parent, child relationship.
sibling + nextAdjacentSibling	Selects the sibling immediately following an element.
sibling ~ anyProceedingSibling	Selects any siblings immediately following an element.
Basic Filters
:first	Selects the first element.
:last	Selects the last element.
:not(selector)	Selects elements based on what you don't want.
:even	Selects only elements falling within even numbering. Since jQuery calculates position offset from zero, this actually results in the odd-numbered items being returned. Item one would be considered number zero, item two would be considered number one, and so on; so even matches numbers zero, two, four, and so on.
:odd	Selects only elements falling ...