Question

Is there any reason that this:

function find_parent_p(x){
    daddy = jQuery(x).parent();


    if(daddy.attr("tagName").toLowerCase() == 'p'){
        console.log(daddy,"result");
        return (daddy);
    } else {
        find_parent_p(daddy);

    }

}
jQuery(document).ready(function($){

        $('img').each(function(){

            next = find_parent_p($(this));

        })


});

would return a jQuery object in the console (expected behaviour), where as the following returns Undefined All I am doing is moving the call to console.log outside the function, and after the call to it:

function find_parent_p(x){
    daddy = jQuery(x).parent();


    if(daddy.attr("tagName").toLowerCase() == 'p'){

        return (daddy);
    } else {
        find_parent_p(daddy);

    }

}
jQuery(document).ready(function($){

        $('img').each(function(){

            next = find_parent_p($(this));
                    console.log(next,"result");

        })


});

Answer 1

You’re missing the return statement in your else condition. If your function recurses, then the top level call won’t return anything, and you’ll end up with undefined.

else {
    return find_parent_p(daddy);

}