Question

I have these 4 HTML snippets:

• Siblings:

  <div class="a">...</div>
  <div class="b">...</div>        <!--selected-->
  <div class="b">...</div>        <!--not selected-->
  

• Wrapped 1:

  <div class="a">...</div>
  <div>
      <div class="b">...</div>    <!--selected-->
  </div>
  <div class="b">...</div>        <!--not selected-->
  

• Wrapped 2:

  <div>
      <div class="a">...</div>
  </div>
  <div>
      <div class="b">...</div>    <!--selected-->
  </div>
  <div class="b">...</div>        <!--not selected-->
  

• Separated:

  <div class="a">...</div>
  <div>...</div>
  <div class="b">...</div>        <!--selected-->
  <div>...</div>
  <div class="b">...</div>        <!--not selected-->
  <div>...</div>
  <div class="b">...</div>        <!--not selected-->
  

How can I, with jQuery, select the next .b element for any given .a element, regardless of nesting?

I want something like this:

$('.a').each(function() {
    var nearestB = $(this)./*Something epically wonderful here*/;

    //do other stuff here
});

Answer 1

Ok, here’s a modified version of Padel‘s solution, that behaves slightly differently

var lastA = null;

$('.a, .b').each(function() {
    if($(this).hasClass('a'))
    {
        lastA = $(this);
    }
    else if(lastA)
    {
        doStuff(lastA,this); //doStuff(a,b)
        lastA = null;
    }
});