I have a DOM structure similar to this:
<div id="ans1">
<input id="in1" />
<input id="in2" />
</div>
<div id="ans2">
<input id="in1" />
<input id="in2" />
</div>
How can I select some of the descendants of an ancestor?
Something like:
$("#ans1 #in1, #ans1 #in2")
You can use the children function
$("#ans1").children("#in1, #in2")
You should use unique ids thought the DOM, use classes to specify elements that are the same in nature.
change your children to have same class of in1
$("#ans1 > .in1")
Will select all direct descendants of ans1 with class of in1.
If you replace your 'id's with classes (since ids should be unique), then,
<div id="ans1">
<input class="in1" />
<input class="in2" />
</div>
<div id="ans2">
<input class="in1" />
<input class="in2" />
</div>
Then, to select all the descendants of id=ans1 having class="in1", you go like,
$('#ans1 .in1')
This will return an array of all the .in1 class elements inside id=ans1 element