Given a multirow, multicolumn table, how can I select all cells in the same column as any arbitrary cell (e.g. a cell that is clicked on).
Something like:>
Your attempt is right, all you need to do is use .index to find the column number—the index of the within the row. You also need to use the nth-child-selector to match the column indices of the other elements.
$("td").click(function(){
var columnNo = $(this).index();
$(this).closest("table")
.find("tr td:nth-child(" + (columnNo+1) + ")")
.css("color", "red");
});