jQuery: Is there a functional difference between $('.selector', myContext) and myContext.find('.selector')?

I feel like $('.selector', myContext) and myContext.find('.selector') are two identical ways to get the same information. Is there a practical reason when you would use one over the other? Speed perhaps开发者_Python百科?

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$('.selector', myContext) and $(myContext).find('.selector') are completely equivalent:

From the jQuery 1.4.2 source (core.js):

//...

// HANDLE: $(expr, context)
// (which is just equivalent to: $(context).find(expr)
} else {
    return jQuery( context ).find( selector );
}

//...

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Internally, selector context is implemented with the .find() method, so $('span', this) is equivalent to $(this).find('span').

From: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery/#jQuery1

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The first involves slightly less characters of code, but other than that the same thing

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When a new jQuery object is created the constructor tries to figure out what was passed in. When context is a DOMElement jQuery transforms $(selector, context) into $(context).find(selector). You can avoid much of the logic the constructor does including some string parsing by making this change yourself. (excerpt from the following post : http://engineeredweb.com/blog/10/12/3-tips-make-your-jquery-selectors-faster/ )