jquery selector performance?

Question

Just curious about which of these would be faster?

$('ul.dropdown a').first().click(function(event) {
    event.stopPropagation();
    return false;
});

or

$('.dropdown > li > a').click(function(event) {           
    event.preventDefault();
});

Is there any difference?

Answer 1

$('.dropdown').find('a').on('click', function(e) {           
    e.preventDefault();
});

Answer 2

They do two different things.

I guess you're asking about > V.S. space:
> is fatser then space, as it goes one level deep only.

The tip with selectors is make the right side of it more precise than the left.
Read more here