jQuery: Find the text of a list item that contains a nested ul

Question

I have the following:

item1
    

        
sub1
        
sub2
             


        

Answer 1

What about this approach? Clone the object, remove the clone's children and then find the text content.

$("#list li").click(function () {
    alert($(this).clone().children().remove().end().text());
}

Perhaps not the most efficient approach, but it's entirely intuitive, pretty tidy, and you don't have to muck with your html.