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TypeError: $(…).children is not a function

I try to select certain DOM element with jQuery

the html

<html>
    <head>
        <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"> </script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <nav id="nav" class="navigator">
      <h1>Nav Header</h1>

      <ul class="nav-list">
        <li class="nav-item"><a >Item #1</a></li>
        <li class="nav-item active"><a href="#2">Item #2</a></li>
      </ul>
      </nav>
    </body>
</html>

I want to select Item #1 I used

$('.nav-list').children()

I got

TypeError: $(...).children is not a function

What’s wrong here ?

Answer

You need to include jQuery in your page.

Most browsers nowadays include a $() function in their console by default for easy element selection, but this simply maps to document.getElementById().

The value returned will not have a .children() method.

Additionally, if you load an HTML page directly from your file system, you need to include the http:// for CDN script URLs. Otherwise, your browser will try to find the .js file on your local system.