:first Selector

Categories: Selectors > Basic Filter

first selector

version added: 1.0jQuery(':first')

Description: Selects the first matched element.

The :first pseudo-class is equivalent to :eq(0). It could also be written as :lt(1). While this matches only a single element, :first-child can match more than one: One for each parent.

Example:

Finds the first table row.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>

  td { color:blue; font-weight:bold; }
  </style>
  <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
	<table>
    <tr><td>Row 1</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Row 2</td></tr>

    <tr><td>Row 3</td></tr>
  </table>
<script>$("tr:first").css("font-style", "italic");</script>
</body>
</html>

Demo:

Comments

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hc

If you know there is only one element to be found, is it faster (in terms of performance) to use ':first' as part of the selector or not?

For example, if your markup is this:

<table>
<tr><td>Row 1</td></tr>
</table>

And you want to get the first row, and you know there will always only be one row, is it faster to do:

$('table > tr')

or

$('table > tr:first')

Has anyone done speed tests to verify the answer?

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