Question

How can I delete everything inside main except the ul element?

<div id="main">
 <div id="a">
  <div id="b">
    <div id="c"></div>
    <div id="d"></div>
    <div id="e">
      <ul></ul>
    </div>
  </div>
 </div>
</div>

Answer 1

Assuming the desired outcome is <div id="main"><ul></ul></div> and you want to keep all <ul>s (or if there’s only one):

$( '#main' ).html( $( '#main ul' ) );​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/pEvNt/

Doing $( '#main' ).not( 'ul' ).remove() would not work because it would remove the ul’s parents and the ul with them (see http://jsfiddle.net/h67Ge/).