jQuery :first vs. .first()

Question

The .first() method was added in jQuery 1.4.

The :first selector has been around since 1.0.

From the docs:

:first

Answer 1

The :first pseudo selector and first() can do the same thing.

As for performance, here is a live example of performance difference between jQuery first(),:first, eq(0) and :nth(0).

http://jsperf.com/jquery-first-vs-first-selector, Please check it out!

Hope this will help.