finding nested table cell contents - jquery query performance -

i have huge table generated html in each td. generated html table inside container div of class .cellcontent. current jquery getting contents of first cell of table slow. what better/faster way of writing following?

var contents = $(cell).find('.cellcontent>table>tbody>tr>td:first :first-child'); 

this jquery executed each cell in large table quite , appears significant performance drain on page.

cell following:

var maintable = document.getelementbyid("gridid"); (var colindex = startindex; colindex <= maintable.rows[0].cells.length; colindex++) {     (var = 1, row; row = maintable.rows[i]; i++) {         cell = row.cells[colindex - 1];     } } 

the exact generated html of cell contents along lines of following:

<td class="staticcol prefitem">     <div class="p_5_18_2013 cellcontent">         <table>             <tbody>                 <tr>                     <td>                         <!--                         ***html want***                         e.g., div or p or other markup                         -->                     </td>                 </tr>             </tbody>         </table>     </div> </td> 

give elements class name. when generating content. can directly target them.

var contents = $('.classname', cell);