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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-11T18:53:51+00:00

Why does this work? $(‘#findme’, ‘<div><div id=findme>Hello</div></div>’) And this does not? $(‘#findme’, ‘<div id=findme>Hello</div>’)

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Why does this work?

$('#findme', '<div><div id="findme">Hello</div></div>')

And this does not?

$('#findme', '<div id="findme">Hello</div>')

For some reason only when I have the enclosing div will jQuery find the div with the id of findme.

Even enclosing it in a different tag does not work.

$('#findme', '<html><div id="findme">Hello</div></html>')

In addition the following don’t work.

$('<div id="findme">Hello</div>').find('#findme')
$('<html><div id="findme">Hello</div></html>').find('#findme')

Although this works.

$('<div><div id="findme">Hello</div></div>').find('#findme')

There is something I’m not understanding about how the context works.

Thanks,
Randall

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It is quite easy actually. The way you are searching is using context. So it takes the top-most node in the string, and searches through it’s children.

    So imagine having the same structure in html, and parsing it:

    $('#findme', '<div><div id="findme"></div></div>')

    is the same as

    $('div').find('#findme')

    OR

    $('div').children('#findme')

    So when you try

    $('<div id="findme"></div>').find('#findme')

    It obviously has no children.

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