Package org.jsoup.select

Class Selector

java.lang.Object

org.jsoup.select.Selector

public class Selector
extends Object

CSS-like element selector, that finds elements matching a query.

Selector syntax

A selector is a chain of simple selectors, separated by combinators. Selectors are case insensitive (including against elements, attributes, and attribute values).

The universal selector (*) is implicit when no element selector is supplied (i.e. *.header and .header is equivalent).

Pattern	Matches	Example
*	any element	*
tag	elements with the given tag name	div
*|E	elements of type E in any namespace (including non-namespaced)	*|name finds <fb:name> and <name> elements
ns|E	elements of type E in the namespace ns	fb|name finds <fb:name> elements
#id	elements with attribute ID of "id"	div#wrap, #logo
.class	elements with a class name of "class"	div.left, .result
[attr]	elements with an attribute named "attr" (with any value)	a[href], [title]
[^attrPrefix]	elements with an attribute name starting with "attrPrefix". Use to find elements with HTML5 datasets	[^data-], div[^data-]
[attr=val]	elements with an attribute named "attr", and value equal to "val"	img[width=500], a[rel=nofollow]
[attr="val"]	elements with an attribute named "attr", and value equal to "val"	span[hello="Cleveland"][goodbye="Columbus"], a[rel="nofollow"]
[attr^=valPrefix]	elements with an attribute named "attr", and value starting with "valPrefix"	a[href^=http:]
[attr$=valSuffix]	elements with an attribute named "attr", and value ending with "valSuffix"	img[src$=.png]
[attr*=valContaining]	elements with an attribute named "attr", and value containing "valContaining"	a[href*=/search/]
[attr~=regex]	elements with an attribute named "attr", and value matching the regular expression	img[src~=(?i)\\.(png|jpe?g)]
	The above may be combined in any order	div.header[title]
	Combinators
E F	an F element descended from an E element	div a, .logo h1
E > F	an F direct child of E	ol > li
E + F	an F element immediately preceded by sibling E	li + li, div.head + div
E ~ F	an F element preceded by sibling E	h1 ~ p
E, F, G	all matching elements E, F, or G	a[href], div, h3
	Pseudo selectors
:lt(n)	elements whose sibling index is less than n	td:lt(3) finds the first 3 cells of each row
:gt(n)	elements whose sibling index is greater than n	td:gt(1) finds cells after skipping the first two
:eq(n)	elements whose sibling index is equal to n	td:eq(0) finds the first cell of each row
:has(selector)	elements that contains at least one element matching the selector	div:has(p) finds divs that contain p elements. div:has(> a) selects div elements that have at least one direct child a element.
:not(selector)	elements that do not match the selector. See also Elements.not(String)	div:not(.logo) finds all divs that do not have the "logo" class. div:not(:has(div)) finds divs that do not contain divs.
:contains(text)	elements that contains the specified text. The search is case insensitive. The text may appear in the found element, or any of its descendants.	p:contains(jsoup) finds p elements containing the text "jsoup".
:matches(regex)	elements whose text matches the specified regular expression. The text may appear in the found element, or any of its descendants.	td:matches(\\d+) finds table cells containing digits. div:matches((?i)login) finds divs containing the text, case insensitively.
:containsOwn(text)	elements that directly contain the specified text. The search is case insensitive. The text must appear in the found element, not any of its descendants.	p:containsOwn(jsoup) finds p elements with own text "jsoup".
:matchesOwn(regex)	elements whose own text matches the specified regular expression. The text must appear in the found element, not any of its descendants.	td:matchesOwn(\\d+) finds table cells directly containing digits. div:matchesOwn((?i)login) finds divs containing the text, case insensitively.
:containsData(data)	elements that contains the specified data. The contents of script and style elements, and comment nodes (etc) are considered data nodes, not text nodes. The search is case insensitive. The data may appear in the found element, or any of its descendants.	script:contains(jsoup) finds script elements containing the data "jsoup".
	The above may be combined in any order and with other selectors	.light:contains(name):eq(0)
:matchText	treats text nodes as elements, and so allows you to match against and select text nodes. Note that using this selector will modify the DOM, so you may want to clone your document before using.	p:matchText:firstChild with input <p>One<br />Two</p> will return one PseudoTextElement with text "One".
Structural pseudo selectors
:root	The element that is the root of the document. In HTML, this is the html element	:root
:nth-child(an+b)	elements that have an+b-1 siblings before it in the document tree, for any positive integer or zero value of n, and has a parent element. For values of a and b greater than zero, this effectively divides the element's children into groups of a elements (the last group taking the remainder), and selecting the bth element of each group. For example, this allows the selectors to address every other row in a table, and could be used to alternate the color of paragraph text in a cycle of four. The a and b values must be integers (positive, negative, or zero). The index of the first child of an element is 1. In addition to this, :nth-child() can take odd and even as arguments instead. odd has the same signification as 2n+1, and even has the same signification as 2n.	tr:nth-child(2n+1) finds every odd row of a table. :nth-child(10n-1) the 9th, 19th, 29th, etc, element. li:nth-child(5) the 5h li
:nth-last-child(an+b)	elements that have an+b-1 siblings after it in the document tree. Otherwise like :nth-child()	tr:nth-last-child(-n+2) the last two rows of a table
:nth-of-type(an+b)	pseudo-class notation represents an element that has an+b-1 siblings with the same expanded element name before it in the document tree, for any zero or positive integer value of n, and has a parent element	img:nth-of-type(2n+1)
:nth-last-of-type(an+b)	pseudo-class notation represents an element that has an+b-1 siblings with the same expanded element name after it in the document tree, for any zero or positive integer value of n, and has a parent element	img:nth-last-of-type(2n+1)
:first-child	elements that are the first child of some other element.	div > p:first-child
:last-child	elements that are the last child of some other element.	ol > li:last-child
:first-of-type	elements that are the first sibling of its type in the list of children of its parent element	dl dt:first-of-type
:last-of-type	elements that are the last sibling of its type in the list of children of its parent element	tr > td:last-of-type
:only-child	elements that have a parent element and whose parent element have no other element children
:only-of-type	an element that has a parent element and whose parent element has no other element children with the same expanded element name
:empty	elements that have no children at all

A word on using regular expressions in these selectors: depending on the content of the regex, you will need to quote the pattern using Pattern.quote("regex") for it to parse correclty through both the selector parser and the regex parser. E.g. String query = "div:matches(" + Pattern.quote(regex) + ");".

Author:

Jonathan Hedley, jonathan@hedley.net

See Also:

Element.select(String)

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes

Modifier and Type	Class	Description
static class	Selector.SelectorParseException

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
static Elements	select(String query, Iterable<Element> roots)	Find elements matching selector.
static Elements	select(String query, Element root)	Find elements matching selector.
static Elements	select(Evaluator evaluator, Element root)	Find elements matching selector.
static Element	selectFirst(String cssQuery, Element root)	Find the first element that matches the query.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Method Details

select

public static Elements select(String query, Element root)

Find elements matching selector.

Parameters:

query - CSS selector

root - root element to descend into

Returns:

matching elements, empty if none

Throws:

Selector.SelectorParseException - (unchecked) on an invalid CSS query.

select

public static Elements select(Evaluator evaluator, Element root)

Find elements matching selector.

Parameters:

evaluator - CSS selector

root - root element to descend into

Returns:

matching elements, empty if none

select

public static Elements select(String query, Iterable<Element> roots)

Find elements matching selector.

Parameters:

query - CSS selector

roots - root elements to descend into

Returns:

matching elements, empty if none

selectFirst

@Nullable public static Element selectFirst(String cssQuery, Element root)

Find the first element that matches the query.

Parameters:

cssQuery - CSS selector

root - root element to descend into

Returns:

the matching element, or null if none.