Question

I have this little code:

$("ul#mainnav > li").hover(function(){
   $("ul#mainnav > li > a").slideUp();
})

I just don’t know the right syntax for selecting the direct child <a> using $(this)
What I used is this, and I think its wrong…

$(this).find("> a")

Thank you.

Answer 1

For starters, you have an extra quote. Remove the quote after this. Like this:

$(this).find("> a") 

Admittedly I’ve never used selectors for this case, so I can’t comment about why it’s not working. Instead, I’d recommend using children() which is usually faster and, IMHO, clearer.

$(this).children('a'); 

But if you really want to use a string selector, this should work:

$('> a', this)

Note that the jquery docs say that the latter code will be deprecated at some point, so use with caution. I’d still recommend using children().