Question

I have some <TD>s without unique names. Inside them there are spans with unique classnames so I have no problem targetting the spans. How can I target the parent <td> so I can change its class?

I want to do something like $(".classname").parent("TD").className="newClassclassname".

Answer 1

You were close:

 $('.classname').parent('td').addClass('newClassName');

Though typically it’s safer to go with:

 $('.classname').closest('td').addClass('newClassName');

… which doesn’t assume the <td> is the immediate parent.

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The reason .className doesn’t work is because jQuery returns elements wrapped in the jQuery object. If you want to access the original (DOM) object you need to select the first item in the jQuery collection with [0]:

 $('.classname').parent('td')[0].className = 'newClassName';

But I recommend using the jQuery function addClass() anyway since it won’t interfere with existing classes.