[jQuery] Re: get parent element text while excluding child element text

[Mauricio (Maujor) Samy Silva]

1-) alert($('*', $('p')).remove().text())
2-) alert($('*', $('p')).empty().text())

$('*', $('p')) // contextual selector: finds all HTML elements inside the 
paragraphs.
Chain with empty() ou remove() according your  needs

Maurício

Is there a more elegant, concise, pure jQuery approach to doing the
following?...

HTML:  <p id="test">paragraph_text<span>span_text</span></p>

JAVASCRIPT:
var p_txt = $('#test').text().substring(0, ($('#test').text().length -
$('#test span').text().length));
alert(p_txt);

OUTPUT:  paragraph_text