Find the next element that is not immediate?

Question

I want to find the first span element after class counter, in code something like this:

<div class="counter"></div>
<p></p>
<span></span>

It seems like the next() function only finds the immediate next element, so something like this:

$(".counter").next("span")

Won't work. The way I have been using is a bit lengthy and I was wondering if there was a shorter way, it is this:

$(".counter").nextAll("span").eq(0)

I think the closest() method in jQuery 3 will do the trick, but I am using 1.2.6 -- is there a better way to do this (am I just using next() wrong?)

Solution 1

I think your method is the best way. And if you feel it doesn't look good just turn it into a plugin:

jQuery.fn.firstAfter = function(filter){
 return this.nextAll(filter).eq(0);
}

Solution 2

Similar to the marked answer but looks a little cleaner using the :first selector:

$('.counter').nextAll('span:first')

Solution 3

I think the siblings() function is what you are looking for. Try something like this:

$(".counter").siblings("span");

Solution 4

I'm not sure that the closest method will do the trick, but if so... maybe you can extract the closest method from 1.3 and turning it into a plugin?

I haven't had a chance to try this, but give it a shot. It can't hurt:

(function($) {
  $.fn.closest = function (selector) {
    return this.map(function(){
      var cur = this;
      while ( cur && cur.ownerDocument ) {
        if ( $(cur).is(selector) )
          return cur;
        cur = cur.parentNode;
      }
    });
  }
})(jQuery);

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Comments

[Andrew Hare]

Any reason for the downvote? This is the simplest solution to the problem.

[Allain Lalonde]

I didn't downvote, but doesn't this only find you elements that are immediate siblings to the .counter one. I think he wants the next on in the page as though we were looking at the source code.

[Andrew Hare]

Hmm, possibly. siblings() works for the example code he posted.

[Pim Jager]

CLosest will also search upwards.

[Pim Jager]

This will not work when you have somthing like: <div class='x'></div><p><span></span></p>. The span will not be matched.

[Taryn East]

Won't siblings take the first of the siblings that matches... which may be before the current element? I think the solution needed here is to exclude all siblings before the current element and only match the first sibling after the current.