Update:

From jQuery 1.8, we can use $.parseHTML, which will parse the HTML string to an array of DOM nodes. eg:

var dom_nodes = $($.parseHTML('<div><input type="text" value="val" /></div>'));



alert( dom_nodes.find('input').val() );

DEMO

var string = '<div><input type="text" value="val" /></div>';



$('<div/>').html(string).contents();

DEMO

What's happening in this code:

• $('<div/>') is a fake <div> that does not exist in the DOM


• $('<div/>').html(string) appends string within that fake <div> as children


• .contents() retrieves the children of that fake <div> as a jQuery object

If you want to make .find() work then try this:

var string = '<div><input type="text" value="val" /></div>',

    object = $('<div/>').html(string).contents();



alert( object.find('input').val() );

DEMO