Question

<div id="con" >
    <p class="bb">1</p>
    <p class="aa">2</p>
    <p class="aa">3</p>
    <p class="bb">4</p> /*----- i want this reference */
    <p class="aa">5</p>
    <p class="aa">6</p>
    <p id="last" class="aa">7</p>
    <p class="aa">6</p>
    <p class="aa">6</p>
</div>

i want to find the previous element among the siblings with sorted value.
here i want to find the ‘p’ has class ‘aa’ previous to #last

$("#last").prev('p.bb').text()

// empty string

 $("#last").prev().text()

//will give 6

i want 4.. just the text of previous closest ‘p.bb’

Answer 1

I’m unsure of what, precisely, you’re looking for, but assuming you want to find the last p of class bb that comes before your #last element:

var $last = $('#last');

var lastIndex = $last.index('#con p');

for (i=lastIndex; i>=0; i--){
    if ($('#con p').eq(i).hasClass('bb')){
        $('#con p').eq(i).css('background-color','#f00');
        alert($('#con p').eq(i).text());
        break;
    }
}

JS Fiddle demo.

While this is rather more verbose than @voigtan‘s answer it allows you to use any arbitrary element, and ensures that the .bb element found always occurs prior to that element.