Question

A table isn’t a sibling to a hyperlink is it?
I have:

<a href="JavaScript:;">Show me the table</a>
<table class="hidden">
...
</table>

Q: What jQuery selector do I use to get the table following the anchor tag?

$('a').click(function() {
   $(this).something.slideDown();
});

Answer 1

I strongly suggest not assuming your table will always be adjacent. It may be right now, but if you need to move it for some reason your code will break.

Save yourself some trouble and store an identifier for the table in the anchor element. One option is to use data attributes to store the selector.

<a href="#" data-target-table="#table1">Show me the table</a>
<table id="table1" class="hidden">
    ...
</table>

and get it using .data()

$('a').click(function() {
    var $this = $(this);
    var $table = $($this.data('targetTable'));
    $table.something.slideDown();
});

An alternative is to have a common class on each element and use that to select the table.