SO fiddle

Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions

by Nick Craver

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.4/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css">

JavaScript

var xml = '<xml> \
<outer> \
  <inner name="name0" type="type0" /> \
  <inner name="name1" type="type1" /> \
  <inner name="name2" type="type2" /> \
</outer> \
</xml>';

var name="name1";
$(xml).find('outer').each(function() {
  var type = $(this).children("[name='" + name + "']").attr("type");
  alert(type);
});