Not class selector in jQuery

Question

Is there a simple selector expression to not select elements with a specific class?

<div class="first-foo" />
<div class="first-moo" />
<div class="first-koo" />
<div class="first-bar second-foo" />

I just want to get the first three divs and tried

$(div[class^="first-"][class!="first-bar"])

But this receives all as the last div contains more than first-bar. Is there a way to use a placeholder in such an expression? Something like that

$(div[class^="first-"][class!="first-bar*"]) // doesn't seem to work

Any other selectors that may help?

Answer 1

You need the :not() selector:

$('div[class^="first-"]:not(.first-bar)')

or, alternatively, the .not() method:

$('div[class^="first-"]').not('.first-bar');