 <pre><code>$("[ref=B]").append($(data).find("[ref=A]")); </code></pre> <p>The way you do it in your question, the last part <code>find( '[ref=A]' )</code> is useless.</p> <p>[Edit] Also, the other question is more than 2 years old. For recent versions of jQuery you might need additional quotes:</p> <pre><code>$("[ref='B']").append($(data).find("[ref='A']")); </code></pre>