Get nth-child using querySelector in JavaScript

Get nth-child using querySelector in JavaScript #

To get the nth-child of an element using the querySelector method, pass the :nth-child() pseudo-class as a parameter to the method, e.g. document.querySelector('#parent :nth-child(1)'). The nth-child pseudo-class returns the element that matches the specified position.

Here is the HTML for the examples in this article.

index.html

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
  </head>

  <body>
    <div id="parent">
      <div class="child1">Child 1</div>
      <div class="child2">Child 2</div>
      <div class="child3">Child 3</div>
    </div>

    <script src="index.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

And here is the related JavaScript code.

index.js

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const first = document.querySelector('#parent :nth-child(1)');
console.log(first); // 👉️ div.child1

const second = document.querySelector('#parent :nth-child(2)');
console.log(second); // 👉️ div.child2

const third = document.querySelector('#parent :nth-child(3)');
console.log(third); // 👉️ div.child3

The :nth-child() pseudo-class allows us to match elements based on their position among a group of siblings.

The :nth-child() pseudo class takes a single argument that describes which elements should be matched.

Note that with :nth-child(), element indices are 1-based.

You can narrow this down by only matching an element of a specific type, e.g. the first positioned div element.

index.js

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const first = document.querySelector('#parent div:nth-child(1)');
console.log(first); // 👉️ div.child1

This selector would only match the first div element in the group of siblings.

You can also pass different keyword values to the :nth-child() pseudo class, for example:

odd - matches the siblings whose numeric position is odd - 1, 3, 5, etc.
even - matches the siblings whose numeric position is even - 2, 4, 6, etc.
3n - matches elements in position 3, 6, 9, 12, etc.

The following examples use document.querySelectorAll to select multiple elements using the :nth-child() pseudo class.

index.js

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const odd = document.querySelectorAll('#parent :nth-child(odd');
console.log(odd); // 👉️ [div.child1, div.child3]

const even = document.querySelectorAll('#parent :nth-child(even)');
console.log(even); // 👉️ [div.child2]

const every2 = document.querySelectorAll('#parent :nth-child(2n)');
console.log(every2); // 👉️ [div.child2]

The querySelectorAll method returns a NodeList containing the elements that satisfy the condition.

Get nth-child using querySelector in JavaScript

Get nth-child using querySelector in JavaScript #

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Borislav Hadzhiev