parent

Get the parent DOM element of a set of DOM elements.

Please note that .parent() only travels a single level up the DOM tree as opposed to the .parents() command.

Syntax

.parent()
.parent(selector)
.parent(options)
.parent(selector, options)

Usage

Correct Usage

cy.get('header').parent() // Yield parent el of `header`

Incorrect Usage

cy.parent() // Errors, cannot be chained off 'cy'
cy.reload().parent() // Errors, 'reload' does not yield DOM element

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 .parent().

OptionDefaultDescription
logtrueDisplays the command in the Command log
timeoutdefaultCommandTimeoutTime to wait for .parent() to resolve before timing out

Yields

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

Examples

No Args

Get the parent of the active li

<ul class="main-nav">
  <li>Overview</li>
  <li>
    Getting started
    <ul class="sub-nav">
      <li>Install</li>
      <li class="active">Build</li>
      <li>Test</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>
// yields .sub-nav
cy.get('li.active').parent()

Selector

Get the parent with class sub-nav of all li elements

<ul class="main-nav">
  <li>Overview</li>
  <li>
    Getting started
    <ul class="sub-nav">
      <li>Install</li>
      <li class="active">Build</li>
      <li>Test</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>
// yields .sub-nav
cy.get('li').parent('.sub-nav')

Rules

Requirements

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

Assertions

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

Timeouts

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

Command Log

Assert on the parent of the active li

cy.get('li.active').parent().should('have.class', 'nav')

The commands above will display in the Command Log as:

Command Log parent

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

Console Log parent

See also