jQuery | :empty selector

Introduction

The :empty selector in jQuery allows you to select elements that do not contain any content or child elements. It is particularly useful when manipulating or filtering elements based on their content.

Syntax

The syntax for using the :empty selector in jQuery is as follows:

$(":empty")

Example

Consider the following HTML structure:

<div>
  <p></p>
  <span>Some content</span>
  <div></div>
  <ul>
    <li>Item 1</li>
    <li>Item 2</li>
  </ul>
</div>

To select all the empty elements within the <div>, you can use the :empty selector as shown below:

$("div :empty")

This will return a jQuery object containing the empty <p> element and the empty <div> element.

Usage

The :empty selector is commonly used in various scenarios:

Filtering empty elements

// Select all empty paragraphs
$("p:empty")

// Select all empty spans
$("span:empty")

Manipulating empty elements

// Remove all empty divs
$("div:empty").remove()

// Add class to empty list items
$("li:empty").addClass("empty-item")

These are just a few examples of how the :empty selector can be used in jQuery to perform various operations on empty elements.

Conclusion

The :empty selector in jQuery provides a powerful and convenient way to select, filter, and manipulate elements that do not contain any content or child elements. It can be used to streamline your code and perform operations on specific types of elements within your web page.