jQuery delete all table rows except first

Question

This should work:

$(document).ready(function() {
   $("someTableSelector").find("tr:gt(0)").remove();
});

I think this is more readable given the intent:

$('someTableSelector').children( 'tr:not(:first)' ).remove();

Using children also takes care of the case where the first row contains a table by limiting the depth of the search.

If you had an TBODY element, you can do this:

$("someTableSelector > tbody:last").children().remove();

If you have THEAD or TFOOT elements you'll need to do something different.

Another way to accomplish this is using the empty() function of jQuery with the thead and tbody elements in your table.

Example of a table:

<table id="tableId">
<thead>
    <tr><th>Col1</th><th>Col2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
    <tr><td>some</td><td>content</td></tr>
    <tr><td>to be</td><td>removed</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

And the jQuery command:

$("#tableId > tbody").empty();

This will remove every rows contained in the tbody element of your table and keep the thead element where your header should be. It can be useful when you want to refresh only the content of a table.

If it were me, I'd probably boil it down to a single selector:

$('someTableSelector tr:not(:first)').remove();