---
title: DOM Elements
description: "> This page teaches you how to find and access HTML elements in an HTML page. --- ## Finding HTML Elements Often, with JavaScript, you want to manipulate HTML elements. To do so, you have to find the elements first.…"
url: "https://apprentice.mn/docs/dom-elements/"
updated: "2021-05-19"
category: Javascript
---

# DOM Elements

> This page teaches you how to find and access HTML elements in an HTML page.

---

## Finding HTML Elements

Often, with JavaScript, you want to manipulate HTML elements.

To do so, you have to find the elements first. There are several ways to do this:

- Finding HTML elements by id
- Finding HTML elements by tag name
- Finding HTML elements by class name
- Finding HTML elements by CSS selectors
- Finding HTML elements by HTML object collections

---

## Finding HTML Element by Id

The easiest way to find an HTML element in the DOM, is by using the element id.

This example finds the element with `id="intro"`:

### Example

      `var myElement = document.getElementById("intro");`

> If the element is found, the method will return the element as an object (in myElement).
>
>
>
> If the element is not found, myElement will contain `null`.

---

## Finding HTML Elements by Tag Name

This example finds all `<p>` elements:

### Example

      `var x = document.getElementsByTagName("p");`

This example finds the element with `id="main"`, and then finds all `<p>` elements inside `"main"`:

### Example

      `var x = document.getElementById("main");
var y = x.getElementsByTagName("p");`

## Finding HTML Elements by Class Name

If you want to find all HTML elements with the same class name, use `getElementsByClassName()`.

This example returns a list of all elements with `class="intro"`.

### Example

      `var x = document.getElementsByClassName("intro");`

> Finding elements by class name does not work in Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions.

---

## Finding HTML Elements by CSS Selectors

If you want to find all HTML elements that match a specified CSS selector (id, class names, types, attributes, values of attributes, etc), use the `querySelectorAll()` method.

This example returns a list of all `<p>` elements with `class="intro"`.

### Example

      `var x = document.querySelectorAll("p.intro");`

The `querySelectorAll()` method does not work in Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions.

---

## Finding HTML Elements by HTML Object Collections

This example finds the form element with `id="frm1"`, in the forms collection, and displays all element values:

### Example

      `var x = document.forms["frm1"];
var text = "";
var i;
for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
  text += x.elements[i].value + "<br>";
}
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = text;`

The following HTML objects (and object collections) are also accessible:

- document.anchors
- document.body
- document.documentElement
- document.embeds
- document.forms
- document.head
- document.images
- document.links
- document.scripts
- document.title

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