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HTML DOM getElementsByClassName() Method

< Document Object

Example

Get all elements with the specified class name:

var x = document.getElementsByClassName("example");
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More "Try it Yourself" examples below.


Definition and Usage

The getElementsByClassName() method returns a collection of all elements in the document with the specified class name, as a NodeList object.

The NodeList object represents a collection of nodes. The nodes can be accessed by index numbers. The index starts at 0.

Tip: You can use the length property of the NodeList object to determine the number of elements with a specified class name, then you can loop through all elements and extract the info you want.


Browser Support

The numbers in the table specifies the first browser version that fully supports the method.

Method
getElementsByClassName() 4.0 9.0 3.0 3.1 9.5

Syntax

document.getElementsByClassName(classname)

Parameter Values

Parameter Type Description
classname String Required. The class name of the elements you want to get.

To search for multiple class names, separate them with spaces, like "test demo".

Technical Details

DOM Version: Core Level 1 Document Object
Return Value: A NodeList object, representing a collection of elements with the specified class name. The elements in the returned collection are sorted as they appear in the source code.

Examples

More Examples

Example

Get all elements with both the "example" and "color" classes:

var x = document.getElementsByClassName("example color");
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Example

Find out how many elements with class="example" there are in the document (using the length property of the NodeList object):

var x = document.getElementsByClassName("example").length;
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Example

Change the background color of all elements with class="example":

var x = document.getElementsByClassName("example");
var i;
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
    x[i].style.backgroundColor = "red";
}
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Related Pages

CSS Tutorial: CSS Selectors

CSS Reference: CSS .class Selector

HTML DOM Reference: element.getElementsByClassName()

HTML DOM Reference: className Property

HTML DOM Reference: classList Property

HTML DOM Reference: Style Object


< Document Object