Question

I know how to get elements with a particular attribute:

$("#para [attr_all]")

But how can I get the elements WITHOUT a particular attribute?

I tried:

 $("#para :not([attr_all])")

but it didn’t work. What is the correct way to do this?

---

Let me give an example:

HTML:

<div id="para">
    <input name="fname" optional="1">
    <input name="lname">
    <input name="email">
</div>

jQuery:

$("#para [optional]")       // give me the fname element  
$("#para :not([optional])") // give me the fname, lname, email (fname should not appear here)  

Answer 1

First thing that comes to my mind (maybe sub optimal) :

$('p').filter(function(){
    return !$(this).attr('attr_all');
});

However p:not([attr_all]) should work, so I think something else is going on in your code.