XML DOM: Accessing Node with getElementsByTagName() Method

The getElementsByTagName() Method

getElementsByTagName() JavaScript method returns all elements with a specified tag name.

Syntax

The getElementByTagName() method has the following syntax:

Syntax

node.getElementsByTagName("tagname");

where:

• node is the document node.
• tagname holds the name of the node whose value you want to get.

DOM Node List

The getElementsByTagName() method returns a node list. A node list is an array of nodes.

For example:

x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title");

The <title> elements in x can be accessed by index number. To access the third <title> you can write:

y = x[2];

note

xmlDoc is the document itself (document node).

DOM Node List Length

The length property defines the length of a node list (the number of nodes).

You can loop through a node list by using the length property:

var x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title");  
  
for (i = 0; i <x.length; i++) {  
	// do something for each node  
}

Node Types

The documentElement property of the XML document is the root node.

The nodeName property of a node is the name of the node.

The nodeType property of a node is the type of the node.