findAncestorWithClass() and getParent()

[Edward Chen]

anybody can tell me what is the difference between findAncestorWithClass() and getParent() ? what situation I should use which one.

Thanks.

[David Hibbs]

findParent will return the nearest enclosing tag.

findAncestorWithClass will find the nearest ancestor with the given class. This may be the parent, but likely will not.

i.e. consider basic HTML tags for tables as tag classes.
Table
Tbody
TR
TD

findParent from TD will find the TR it is in. findAncestorWithClass(TR) will find the same TR. findAncestorWithClass(Table) will find the table.