Question

Are the following exactly equivalent? Which idiom do you use and why?

$('#form1 .edit-field :input') $('#form1 .edit-field').find(':input') $('.edit-field :input', '#form1') $(':input', '#form1 .edit-field') 

Answer 1

I would use either #2 or #4:

$('#form1 .edit-field').find(':input') $(':input', '#form1 .edit-field') 

Both of the above are essentially the same. Behind the curtain when you specify a context this is what’s happening anyway:

jQuery( context ).find( selector ); 

The reason I would avoid #1 and #3 is because they’re both significantly slower than #2/#4.

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EDIT: Just did a quick test: 1000 input elements using YOUR selectors:

$('#form1 .edit-field :input')            // 55ms $('#form1 .edit-field').find(':input')    // 21ms $('.edit-field :input', '#form1')         // 47ms $(':input', '#form1 .edit-field')         // 18ms