{"id":513,"date":"2020-12-18T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/html-online.com\/articles\/?p=513"},"modified":"2020-12-24T11:46:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T09:46:43","slug":"getelementbyclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/html-online.com\/articles\/getelementbyclass\/","title":{"rendered":"getElementByClass JavaScript Function?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The getElementById<\/em> is a very common JavaScript <\/a>function that returns a reference to the element by its ID, but unfortunately when we try to use getElementByClass<\/em>, the console returns the following error: Uncaught TypeError: document.getElementByClass is not a function<\/strong>.
\n
\nIn this article I’m going to present two workarounds to replace the getElementByClass JS function, with or without using jQuery.<\/p>\n

\"getElementByClass<\/p>\n

Using jQuery<\/h2>\n

You can use the $(‘.testClass’)<\/strong> jQuery method to target elements by their class names if your project is using the jQuery library<\/a>.
\nHere’s an example which you can test in this saved JSFiddle page<\/a>. Use this HTML code:<\/p>\n

\n
<div<\/span> class=<\/span>\"testClass\"<\/span>><\/span>\n\tA div with class=\"testClass\".\n<\/div><\/span>\n<div<\/span> class=<\/span>\"testClass\"<\/span>><\/span>\n\tThe second div with the same class name.\n<\/div><\/span>\n<p<\/span> class=<\/span>\"testClass\"<\/span>><\/span>\n\tA paragraph with testClass\n<\/p><\/span>\n<button<\/span> type=<\/span>\"button\"<\/span>><\/span>Click to toggle<\/button><\/span>\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
And attach this script:<\/p>\n
\n
$(\"button\"<\/span>).click(function<\/span>(){\n    $('.testClass'<\/span>).toggle();\n});\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Using Plain JavaScript<\/h2>\n
No worries if you don’t have jQuery included because we can use a function that is similar to the getElementsByClass: getElementsByClassName <\/strong>. This pure JS method returns an array of all elements in the document with the specified class name, as a NodeList object. Try it in this JSFiddle<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Here’s the code and how to use it:<\/p>\n
\n
<div<\/span> class=<\/span>\"testClass\"<\/span>><\/span>\n\tA div with class=\"testClass\".\n<\/div><\/span>\n<div<\/span> class=<\/span>\"testClass\"<\/span>><\/span>\n\tThe second div with the same class name.\n<\/div><\/span>\n<p<\/span> class=<\/span>\"testClass\"<\/span>><\/span>\n\tA paragraph with testClass\n<\/p><\/span>\n\n<button<\/span> onclick=<\/span>\"testFunction();\"<\/span>><\/span>Alert the content of the first testClass<\/button><\/span>\n\n<script><\/span>\nfunction<\/span> testFunction() {\n    var<\/span> x =<\/span> document<\/span>.getElementsByClassName(\"testClass\"<\/span>);\n    alert(x[0<\/span>].innerHTML);\n}\n<\/script><\/span>\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
This function is supported in all major browsers so you can go ahead and use it<\/a> to target elements by their class names.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The getElementById is a very common JavaScript function that returns a reference to the element by its ID, but unfortunately when we try to use getElementByClass, the console returns the following error: Uncaught TypeError: document.getElementByClass is not a function.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-javascript","category-jquery"],"yoast_head":"\ngetElementByClass JavaScript Function - Use it with or without jQuery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The getElementById is a common JavaScript function that returns a reference to the element by its ID, but when we try to use getElementByClass,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/html-online.com\/articles\/getelementbyclass\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"getElementByClass JavaScript Function - 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