Question

I would like to know if it is possible to use eq() with filter(). I’ve already tested it and to no avail, though I’ve found a work around. I was just wondering in case I missed something.

My example is this…
Say you have a few tables with columns and rows.

<table class="menuTable"><tr><td>1</td><td>2</td></tr></table>
<table class="menuTable"><tr><td>3</td><td>4</td></tr></table>

I would like to find how many column spaces are in each table, so…

<script type="text/javascript">
alert($(".menuTable").eq(0).filter("td").length);
alert($(".menuTable").eq(1).filter("td").length);
</script>

This doesn’t work and I’d like to find out why. I ended up using .find() instead of .filter(), but I think it would be more appropriate to use .filter().

Thanks for any input.

After a few comments I realize my problem is in the difference between find and filter. Also… for those who are curious. I did manage to get it to work using filter by including eq in the selector…

alert($(".menuTable:eq(0)").filter("td").length);

Answer 1

I ended up using .find() instead of .filter(), but I think it would be
more appropriate to use .filter().

find is indeed what you should be using here. filter as the name suggests, filters the collection of elements, in your case that collection is all .menuTable elements; there are no tds in that collection. find on the other hand looks for children elements, and your collection does have td children elements.