children

Get the children of each DOM element within a set of DOM elements.

The querying behavior of this command matches exactly how .children() works in jQuery.

Syntax

.children()
.children(selector)
.children(options)
.children(selector, options)

Usage

Correct Usage

cy.get('nav').children() // Yield children of nav

Incorrect Usage

cy.children() // Errors, cannot be chained off 'cy'
cy.clock().children() // Errors, 'clock' does not yield DOM elements

Arguments

selector (String selector)

A selector used to filter matching DOM elements.

options (Object)

Pass in an options object to change the default behavior of .children().

Option	Default	Description
`log`	`true`	Displays the command in the Command log
`timeout`	`defaultCommandTimeout`	Time to wait for `.children()` to resolve before timing out

Yields

.children() yields the new DOM element(s) it found.
.children() is a query, and it is safe to chain further methods.

Examples

No Args

Get the children of the `.secondary-nav`

<ul>
  <li>About</li>
  <li>
    Services
    <ul class="secondary-nav">
      <li class="services-1">Web Design</li>
      <li class="services-2">Logo Design</li>
      <li class="services-3">
        Print Design
        <ul class="tertiary-nav">
          <li>Signage</li>
          <li>T-Shirt</li>
          <li>Business Cards</li>
        </ul>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>Contact</li>
</ul>

// yields [
//  <li class="services-1">Web Design</li>,
//  <li class="services-2">Logo Design</li>,
//  <li class="services-3">Print Design</li>
// ]
cy.get('ul.secondary-nav').children()

Selector

Get the children with class `active`

<div>
  <ul>
    <li class="active">Unit Testing</li>
    <li>Integration Testing</li>
  </ul>
</div>

// yields [
//  <li class="active">Unit Testing</li>
// ]
cy.get('ul').children('.active')

Rules

Requirements

.children() requires being chained off a command that yields DOM element(s).

Assertions

.children() will automatically retry until the element(s) exist in the DOM
.children() will automatically retry until all chained assertions have passed

Timeouts

.children() can time out waiting for the element(s) to exist in the DOM .
.children() can time out waiting for assertions you've added to pass.

Command Log

Assert that there should be 8 children elements in a nav

cy.get('.left-nav>.nav').children().should('have.length', 8)

The commands above will display in the Command Log as:

When clicking on the children command within the command log, the console outputs the following: