JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<table id="tab">
<thead>
<tr id="tabhead">
<th>Amount</th>
<th>Update</th>
<th>Delete</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr id="tabbody">
<td>150.0</td>
<td align="center">
<a href='#' class='updatelink'>u</a>
</td>
<td><a href='#'>x</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div id="result"></div>
JavaScript
var x = $("tr:first", $("a.updatelink").parents("table"));
var y = $("a.updatelink").parents("table:first tr:first");
var z = $("a.updatelink").parents("table tr:first");
$("#result").append(" x="+ (x.length? x[0].id : "nothing"));
$("#result").append(" y="+ (y.length? y[0].id : "nothing"));
$("#result").append(" z="+ (z.length? z[0].id : "nothing"));