[jQuery] Re: What is the proper way to write this if statement?

[pedalpete]

Everything that I've seen says you have to check the length of the
element you are looking for.

So I think you want
<pre>
if($(this).parents('ul').length==0){
   $(this).addClass("active");
}
</pre>

If a parent UL was found, the length would be > 0