THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB DEVELOPER SITE
×

JS Tutorial

JS HOME JS Introduction JS Where To JS Output JS Statements JS Syntax JS Comments JS Variables JS Operators JS Arithmetic JS Assignment JS Data Types JS Functions JS Objects JS Events JS Strings JS String Methods JS Numbers JS Number Methods JS Arrays JS Array Methods JS Array Sort JS Array Iteration JS Dates JS Date Formats JS Date Get Methods JS Date Set Methods JS Math JS Random JS Booleans JS Comparisons JS Conditions JS Switch JS Loop For JS Loop While JS Break JS Type Conversion JS Bitwise JS RegExp JS Errors JS Scope JS Hoisting JS Strict Mode JS this Keyword JS Let JS Const JS Debugging JS Style Guide JS Best Practices JS Mistakes JS Performance JS Reserved Words JS Versions JS Version ES5 JS Version ES6 JS JSON

JS Forms

JS Forms Forms API

JS Objects

Object Definitions Object Properties Object Methods Object Constructors Object Prototypes

JS Functions

Function Definitions Function Parameters Function Invocation Function Call Function Apply Function Closures

JS HTML DOM

DOM Intro DOM Methods DOM Document DOM Elements DOM HTML DOM CSS DOM Animations DOM Events DOM Event Listener DOM Navigation DOM Nodes DOM Collections DOM Node Lists

JS Browser BOM

JS Window JS Screen JS Location JS History JS Navigator JS Popup Alert JS Timing JS Cookies

JS AJAX

AJAX Intro AJAX XMLHttp AJAX Request AJAX Response AJAX XML File AJAX PHP AJAX ASP AJAX Database AJAX Applications AJAX Examples

JS JSON

JSON Intro JSON Syntax JSON vs XML JSON Data Types JSON Objects JSON Arrays JSON Parse JSON Stringify JSON PHP JSON HTML JSON JSONP

JS Examples

JS Examples JS HTML DOM JS HTML Input JS HTML Objects JS HTML Events JS Browser JS Quiz JS Certificate

JS References

JavaScript Objects HTML DOM Objects


JavaScript HTML DOM Elements


This page teaches you how to find and access HTML elements in an HTML page.


Finding HTML Elements

Often, with JavaScript, you want to manipulate HTML elements.

To do so, you have to find the elements first. There are a couple of ways to do this:

  • Finding HTML elements by id
  • Finding HTML elements by tag name
  • Finding HTML elements by class name
  • Finding HTML elements by CSS selectors
  • Finding HTML elements by HTML object collections

Finding HTML Element by Id

The easiest way to find an HTML element in the DOM, is by using the element id.

This example finds the element with id="intro":

Example

var myElement = document.getElementById("intro");
Try it Yourself »

If the element is found, the method will return the element as an object (in myElement).

If the element is not found, myElement will contain null.


Finding HTML Elements by Tag Name

This example finds all <p> elements:

Example

var x = document.getElementsByTagName("p");
Try it Yourself »

This example finds the element with id="main", and then finds all <p> elements inside "main":

Example

var x = document.getElementById("main");
var y = x.getElementsByTagName("p");
Try it Yourself »


Finding HTML Elements by Class Name

If you want to find all HTML elements with the same class name, use getElementsByClassName().

This example returns a list of all elements with class="intro".

Example

var x = document.getElementsByClassName("intro");
Try it Yourself »

Finding elements by class name does not work in Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions.


Finding HTML Elements by CSS Selectors

If you want to find all HTML elements that matches a specified CSS selector (id, class names, types, attributes, values of attributes, etc), use the querySelectorAll() method.

This example returns a list of all <p> elements with class="intro".

Example

var x = document.querySelectorAll("p.intro");
Try it Yourself »

The querySelectorAll() method does not work in Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions.


Finding HTML Elements by HTML Object Collections

This example finds the form element with id="frm1", in the forms collection, and displays all element values:

Example

var x = document.forms["frm1"];
var text = "";
var i;
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
    text += x.elements[i].value + "<br>";
}
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = text;
Try it Yourself »

The following HTML objects (and object collections) are also accessible:


Test Yourself with Exercises!

Exercise 1 »  Exercise 2 »  Exercise 3 »  Exercise 4 »  Exercise 5 »