Is there a JS/jQuery Fully Recursive child node count function?

Question

Folks,

Let's say that I have the following situation:

<div class="outer">
    <div>
        <span>
             <ul>
                 <div> </div>
                 <div> </div>
             </ul>
         </span>
     </div>
  </div>

How would I find the total number of elements inside div.outer? Something like $('div.outer').children().size() or length returns 1 (I'm looking, in this case, for 5) is there a shortcut or function to find the total element count using js/jQuery or should I write a function just for this issue? TIA.

Matt Ball · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-18 15:46:09Z

17

var totalDescendants = $('div.outer *').length;

and done.

var totalDescendants = $('div.outer').find('*').length;

would also work.

answered Feb 18, 2011 at 15:46

Matt Ball

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1 Comment

rdodev Over a year ago

Awesome. Thanks for the prompt answer.

Tim Down · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-18 16:06:35Z

2

A simple (and likely faster than jQuery) JavaScript alternative would be

var el = document.getElementById("foo");
var descendantElementCount = el.getElementsByTagName("*").length;

This does assume you've given the element an id. You could use jQuery to get all the elements with class outer, if this is important:

var descendantElementCount = 0;
$('div.outer').each(function() {
    descendantElementCount += this.getElementsByTagName("*").length;
});

edited Feb 18, 2011 at 16:06

answered Feb 18, 2011 at 16:01

Tim Down

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Comments

Harvey Lin · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-07 22:24:36Z

1

jQuery recursive child node count function:

jQuery(document).ready(function(){ var totalChildren=jQuery("*","div.outer").length; });

edited Nov 7, 2018 at 22:24

Harvey Lin

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answered Feb 23, 2011 at 19:48

dip1232001

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