The getElementsByName() method of the Document object returns a NodeList Collection of elements with a given name attribute in the document.
Document: getElementsByName() method
Syntax
js
getElementsByName(name)
Parameters
-
name -
The value of the
nameattribute of the element(s) we are looking for.
Return value
A live NodeList collection, meaning it automatically updates as new elements with the same name are added to, or removed from, the document.
Examples
html
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Example: using document.getElementsByName</title>
</head>
<body>
<input type="hidden" name="up" />
<input type="hidden" name="down" />
</body>
</html>
js
const up_names = document.getElementsByName("up");
console.log(up_names[0].tagName); // displays "INPUT"
Notes
The name attribute can only be applied in (X)HTML documents.
The returned NodeList Collection contains all elements with the given name, such as <meta>, <object>, and even elements which do not support the name attribute at all.
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| HTML Standard # dom-document-getelementsbyname-dev |
Browser compatibility
| Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari | WebView Android | Chrome Android | Firefox for Android | Opera Android | Safari on IOS | Samsung Internet | |
getElementsByName |
1 |
12Before Edge 79, this method returns anHTMLCollection, not a NodeList.
|
1 |
5Returns anHTMLCollection, not a NodeList
|
5 | 1 | 4.4 | 18 | 4 | 10.1 | 1 | 1.0 |
See also
document.getElementById()to return a reference to an element by its uniqueiddocument.getElementsByTagName()to return references to elements with the same tag namedocument.querySelector()to return references to elements via CSS selectors like'div.myclass'
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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/getElementsByName