jQuery :contains selector to search for multiple strings

Question

Assuming i have:

<li id="1">Mary</li> <li id="2">John, Mary, Dave</li> <li id="3">John, Dave, Mary</li> <li id="4">John</li> 

If i need to find all <li> Elements which contain "John" and "Mary", how would i construct the jQuery?

A search for a single string seems easy:

$('li:contains("John")').text() 

I am looking for something like the following pseudo code:

$('li:contains("John")' && 'li:contains("Mary")').text() 

Thanks!

Answer 1

Answer

To find li's that have text containing BOTH Mary AND John:

$('li:contains("Mary"):contains("John")') 

To find li's that have text containing EITHER Mary OR John:

$('li:contains("Mary"), li:contains("John")') 

Explanation

Just think of the :contains as if it was a class declaration, like .class:

$('li.one.two').      // Find <li>'s with classes of BOTH one AND two $('li.one, li.two').  // Find <li>'s with a class of EITHER one OR two 

It's the same with :contains:

$('li:contains("Mary"):contains("John")').      // Both Mary AND John $('li:contains("Mary"), li:contains("John")').  // Either Mary OR John 

Demo

http://jsbin.com/ejuzi/edit

Answer 2

How about

$('li:contains("John"),li:contains("Mary")')