jQuery - Universal Selector

Description

The universal selector selects all the elements available in the document.

Syntax

Here is the simple syntax to use this selector −

$('*')

Parameters

Here is the description of all the parameters used by this selector −

* − A symbolic star.

Returns

Like any other jQuery selector, this selector also returns an array filled with the found elements.

Example

$('*') selects all the elements available in the document.

Following example would select all the elements and will apply yellow color to their background. Try to understand that this selector will select every element including head, body etc.

Live Demo

<html>
   <head>
      <title>The Selecter Example</title>
      <script type = "text/javascript" 
         src = "https://www.tutorialspoint.com/jquery/jquery-3.6.0.js">
      </script>
   
      <script type = "text/javascript" language = "javascript">
         $(document).ready(function() {
            /* This would select all the elements */
            $("*").css("background-color", "yellow");
         });
      </script>
   </head>
	
   <body>
      <div class = "big" id = "div1">
         <p>This is first division of the DOM.</p>
      </div>

      <div class = "medium" id = "div2">
         <p>This is second division of the DOM.</p>
      </div>

      <div class = "small" id = "div3">
         <p>This is third division of the DOM</p>
      </div>
   </body>
</html>

This will produce following result −

jquery-selectors.htm