Use jQuery’s $.closest() vs $.parents()

So I guess you should consider using $.closest() instead of $.parents(). But first, as always you need to know what your dealing with – the key difference between them.

.closest()	.parents()
Begins with the current element	Begins with the parent element
Travels up the DOM tree until it finds a match for the supplied selector	Travels up the DOM tree to the document’s root element, adding each ancestor element to a temporary collection; it then filters that collection based on a selector if one is supplied
The returned jQuery object contains zero or one element for each element in the original set	The returned jQuery object contains zero or more elements for each element in the original set

This jsperf shows the speed results.

Get parent container using $.parents()

Code example.

//remove handler
$('.btn.remove').on('click', _this.cache.$container, function(e)
{
     e.preventDefault();
     console.log('remove...');
     $(this).parents('li').first().remove();
});

Get parent container using $.closest()

Code example.

//remove handler
$('.btn.remove').on('click', _this.cache.$container, function(e)
{
     e.preventDefault();
     console.log('remove...');
     $(this).closest('li').remove();
});

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about jQuery’s Closest and Parents