How to select first parent DIV using jQuery?

Question

var classes = $(this).attr('class').split(' '); // this gets the current element classes  var classes = $(this).parent().attr('class').split(' '); // this gets the parent classes. 

The parent in the above situation is an ankor.

If I wanted to get the first parent DIV of $(this) what would the code look like?

var classes = $(this).div:parent().attr('class').split(' '); // just a quick try. 

* Basically I want to get the classes of the first parent DIV of $(this).

thx

Answer 1

Use .closest() to traverse up the DOM tree up to the specified selector.

var classes = $(this).parent().closest('div').attr('class').split(' '); // this gets the parent classes. 

Answer 2

Use .closest(), which gets the first ancestor element that matches the given selector 'div':

var classes = $(this).closest('div').attr('class').split(' '); 

EDIT:

As @Shef noted, .closest() will return the current element if it happens to be a DIV also. To take that into account, use .parent() first:

var classes = $(this).parent().closest('div').attr('class').split(' ');