Question

I’m sure someone will change my title, but I liked it while it lasted.

Anyway, what the Hector does this do (as my seven-year-old would say)?

$('#id').find('> a')...

BTW, I get that $('#parent > .child') is the same as $('#parent').children('.child') (as explained here), not that I ever use it.

Answer 1

Using > a without a specified parent is actually deprecated syntax, since as you’ve discovered it has ambiguous semantics. .find('> a') is actually equivalent to .children('a').

From http://api.jquery.com/child-selector/

Note: The $("> elem", context) selector will be deprecated in a future release. Its usage is thus discouraged in lieu of using alternative selectors.

[ Remembering that $(sel, context) is equivalent to $(context).find(sel) ]