jQuery - Can I combine object reference with other selectors?

Question

Occasionally I pass an 'object' to jQuery rather than an id or other selectors. For example

<input type="text" onclick="doit(this)" />

<script type="text/javascript">
function doit(e) {
    var a = $(e).val();
}

It is useful when ids are not convenient such as long lists of elements or dynamically created input fields. I actually have seen any examples of passing the object. I just tried it and it works.

My question is: can I combine object selector with other selectors such as I would with ids. so instead of:

$("#myDiv .myClass").something()

I wouldn't know how to code it - something like this maybe:

$(e + " .myclass").something

thanks

Answer 1

Do this:

$(e).find(".myclass").something();

or the slightly shorter, yet less efficient version:

$(".myclass", e).something();

The reason you can't use + is that your e is a DOM element, which is not a useful type for concatenation into a selector string, since you end up with something like:

"[object HTMLInputElement] .myclass"