Find including itself with jQuery (like closest but traversing down)

Question

Like .closest() which allows traversing from the element itself up through its ancestors, I am looking for a method for traversing from the element itself down through its descendants (so unlike .find() which only traverses through the descendants, excluding the element itself). I had a look at the list of traversing methods and couldn't find what I was looking for.

Is there a method in jQuery which is like .closest() but for traversing down?

Answer 1

Just use addBack(selector) method:

$(this).find('.myclass').addBack('.myclass').first();

addBack('.myclass') will add element itself only if matching the selector

Answer 2

Here a plugin that will find the closest (including itself):

$.fn.findClosest = function(selector) {
    return this.is(selector) ? this.filter(selector).first() : this.find(selector).first();
};

The you call it like that :

$('#level-2').findClosest('.foo');

Fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/W3WCQ/12/