Question

[edit] I have reworded the question and removed the example, since it seems to confuse you. Sorry for trouble.

I need to match the first descendant which match a selector.

If multiple elements match this selector but are in separates trees (i.e. if one is not the parent of another) then I want to select both of them.

The exact DOM structure is not known, so I can’t use functions like .children( ) or the > selector (because they expect the user to be sure about the actual DOM structure).

What I need actually look like the .closest( ) function, but for matching children instead of parents, and potentially multiple children at once.

Answer 1

Every tree starting from #B is defined by .children(); every first .foo within such a tree is .find('.foo:eq(0)'), so you should be able to use this:

$('#B').children(':not(.foo)').andSelf().find('.foo:eq(0)');