Selecting only first-level elements in jquery

Question

How can I select the link elements of only the parent

from a list like this?

Link         


        

Answer 1

$("ul > li a")

But you would need to set a class on the root ul if you specifically want to target the outermost ul:

...

Then it's:

$("ul.rootlist > li a")....

Another way of making sure you only have the root li elements:

$("ul > li a").not("ul li ul a")

It looks kludgy, but it should do the trick