jQuery next – Get the Next Element of a Div

We can use the jQuery next method to get the next sibling(div) of the selected div.

$("#div1").next();

Let’s say we have the following HTML:

<div id="top-div">
  <div id="div1" class="divs">
    <p>This is paragraph one.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="divs">
    <p>This is paragraph two.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="divs">
    <p>This is paragraph three.</p>
  </div>
</div>

If we want to change the background color of only the div that contains paragraph two, we will use the jQuery next() method along with the css() method.

$("#div1").next().css("background", "green");

If you are using WordPress, don’t forget to change the $ to jQuery as below:

jQuery("#div1").next().css("background", "green");

The jQuery next() method is very similar to the jQuery prev method, it just gets a different sibling.

Using the jQuery next method to Get and Change the Next Sibling of a Div

In this example, we will get the sibling div of the first div and change its background color. The divs we have will all be boxes. We will add some initial styles to them.

Here is the simple HTML setup.

<style>.divs { display: inline-block; width: 50px; height: 50px; background: #ddd; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px; }</style>
<div id="top-div">
  <div id="div1" class="divs"></div>
  <div class="divs"></div>
  <div class="divs"></div>
</div>
<div id="click-me">Change background of second box</div>

We will utilize the jQuery click(), css(), and next() methods to change the background color of the second div when the button is clicked. In our function, we will generate a random color and then apply that color as the background to the second div. Evertime the user clicks to change the background, a new color should appear.

Here is the JavaScript code:

$("#click-me").click(function(){
  //Create a random color
  var randomColor = "#" + (Math.floor(Math.random()*16777215).toString(16));
  $("#div1").next().css("background", randomColor);
});

The final code and output for this example of using the jQuery next method to get and change the next sibling of a div:

Code Output:

Full Code:

<style>.divs { display: inline-block; width: 50px; height: 50px; background: #ddd; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px; }</style>
<div id="top-div">
  <div id="div1" class="divs"></div>
  <div class="divs"></div>
  <div class="divs"></div>
</div>
<div id="click-me">Change background of second box</div>

<script>

$("#click-me").click(function(){
  //Create a random color
  var randomColor = "#" + (Math.floor(Math.random()*16777215).toString(16));
  $("#div1").next().css("background", randomColor);
});

</script>

Hopefully this article has been useful for you to understand how to use the jQuery next method.