jQuery .prevAll()

Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .prevAll() method searches through the predecessors of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object from the matching elements; the elements are returned in order beginning with the closest sibling.

The method optionally accepts a selector expression of the same type that we can pass to the $() function. If the selector is supplied, the elements will be filtered by testing whether they match it.

Consider a page with a simple list on it:

<ul>
 <li>list item 1</li>
 <li>list item 2</li>
 <li class="third-item">list item 3</li>
 <li>list item 4</li>
 <li>list item 5</li>
</ul>

If we begin at the third item, we can find the elements which come before it:

$( "li.third-item" ).prevAll().css( "background-color", "red" );

The result of this call is a red background behind items 1 and 2. Since we do not supply a selector expression, these preceding elements are unequivocally included as part of the object. If we had supplied one, the elements would be tested for a match before they were included.