getElementsByTagName method

Retrieves a collection of objects based on the specified element name.

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification, Section 1.6.5

Syntax

object.getElementsByTagName(v)

Parameters

v [in]

Type: String

String that specifies the name of an element.

Return value

Type: Element

Returns a collection of objects with the specified element name.

Standards information

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification, Section 1.6.5

Remarks

The getElementsByTagName method is equivalent to using the tags method on the all collection. For example, the following code shows how to retrieve a collection of div elements from the body element, first using the Dynamic HTML (DHTML) Object Model and then the Document Object Model (DOM).

Using the DHTML Object Model:


var aDivs = document.body.all.tags("div");

Using the DOM:


var aDivs = document.body.getElementsByTagName("div");

When you use the getElementsByTagName method, all child and nested child elements with the specified tag name are returned. For example, all of the span elements in the following example would be returned by the getElementsByTagName method.



<div id="oDiv">
    <span>Immediate Child
        <div>
            <span>Child of Child div</span>
        </div>
    </span>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
    var aSpans = oDiv.getElementsByTagName("span");
</script>

Examples

The following example uses the getElementsByTagName method to return the children of a ul element based on the selected li element.

Code example: http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/samples/author/dhtml/refs/getElementsByTagName.htm

JavaScript


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<body>
  <p><strong>Click a list element:</strong></p>
  <ul id="outerUL">
    <li>Item 1
      <ul>
        <li>Sub Item 1.1
          <ol>
            <li>Super Sub Item 1.1</li>
            <li>Super Sub Item 1.2</li>
          </ol>
        </li>
        <li>Sub Item 1.2</li>
        <li>Sub Item 1.3</li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>Item 2
      <ul>
        <li>Sub Item 2.1</li>
        <li>Sub Item 2.3</li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>Item 3</li>
  </ul>
  <script>
    document.getElementById('outerUL').addEventListener('click', fnGetTags, false);

    function fnGetTags(evt) {
      var oWorkItem = evt.target;
      var aReturn = oWorkItem.parentElement.getElementsByTagName("li");

      alert("Length: "
         + aReturn.length
         + "\nFirst Item: "
         + aReturn[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue);
    }
  </script>
</body>

</html>