jQuery Selectors and Filters

Part of jQuery’s power is based on its ability to select particular sections of the page. This table includes several commonly used selectors and filters.

Selector/Filter	Searches for…
$("element")	Any HTML element.
$("#elementID")	Any element with the given ID.
$(".className")	Any element with the given class name.
:header	Any header tag (h1, h2, h3, and so on).
:animated	Any element that is currently being animated.
:contains(text)	Any element that contains the indicated text.
:empty	The element is empty.
:parent	An element that contains some other element.
:attribute=value	The element has an attribute with the specified value.
:Input, :text, :radio, :image, :button, etc	Matches on the specific element type (especially useful for form elements that are all variations of the class="code">input tag).

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/jquery-selectors-and-filters.html