JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Name

HTMLCollection.namedItem( ) — get an element by name

Availability

DOM Level 1 HTML

Synopsis

Node namedItem(String name);

Arguments

name

The name of the element to be returned.

Returns

An element with the specified name, or null if no elements in the HTMLCollection have that name.

Description

This method finds and returns an element from the HTMLCollection that has the specified name. If any element has an id attribute whose value is the specified name, that element is returned. If no such element is found, an element whose name attribute has the specified value is returned. If no such element exists, namedItem( ) returns null.

Note that any HTML element may be given an id attribute, but only certain HTML elements -- such as forms, form elements, images, and anchors -- may have a name attribute.

In JavaScript, it is easier to treat the HTMLCollection as an associative array and to specify name between square brackets using array notation.

Example

var forms = document.forms;                // An HTMLCollection of forms
var address = forms.namedItem("address");  // Finds <form name="address">
var payment = forms["payment"]  // Simpler syntax: finds <form name="payment">
var login = forms.login;        // Also works: finds <form name="login">