Question

message = "<span>prefix text</span> some more text"; // comes down like this
message = $("<div></div>").append(message);
message.filter("span:first").addClass("prefix");
$("#messages").append(message);

message.html() shows the span has no class after this operation, as well as developer mode in IE when looking at the dom source.

$(message).addClass("test"); //does not work either

What am I not understanding about this? ty.

Answer 1

Use .find method instead of .filter:

message.find("span:first").addClass("prefix");