Question

I want to loop through the first column of my table and set the cells to red if odd and blue if even.
In the follwoing: cell containg a, c would be red, and b would blue.

<table class='sortable'> 
    <tr> 
        <td>a</td> 
        <td>d</td> 
        <td>g</td> 
    </tr> 
    <tr> 
        <td>b</td> 
        <td>e</td> 
        <td>h</td> 
    </tr> 
    <tr> 
        <td>c</td> 
        <td>f</td> 
        <td>i</td> 
    </tr> 
</table> 

Answer 1

If you want to do it with a class and only the above listed table:

$(document).ready(function() {
  $(".sortable tr:odd td:first").addClass("red");
  $(".sortable tr:even td:first").addClass("blue");
});

OR
If you want to have many rows (edit: and not know if the column with a,b,c will be first or second or not at all):

$(document).ready(function() {
 $(".sortable tr td:first).each(function(){
  if ($(this).text()=="a" || $(this).text()=="c"){
    $(this).addClass("red");
  }
  if ($(this).text()=="b"){
    $(this).addClass("blue");
  }
 }

});

You’ll also need to specify your class

<style>
 .blue {color:blue}
 .red {color:red}
</style>