Question

I need to select the first TD of every table row where the following conditions are met:

1. TD does not have colspan
2. TD in the first table and not any of the nested ones

The following does not work for me…

$("table:first > td:first-child").not("[colspan]").css("background-color","red");

Answer 1

To limit to the tds of the outer table, you can drill down to a specific level using multiple child selectors.

$("table:first > tbody > tr > td:first-child").not("[colspan]")

Note that I included tbody. You should explicitly include it in your table since most browsers (but not necessarily all) will inject it when missing.

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If you have thead and tfoot elements that should be included, use * instead of tbody.

$("table:first > * > tr > td:first-child").not("[colspan]")