Find html label associated with a given input

Question

Let s say I have an html form   Each input select textarea will have a corresponding  lt label gt  with the for attribute set to the id of it s companion  In this case  I know that each input will only have a single label   Given an input element in javascript  mdash  via an onkeyup event  for example  mdash  what s the best way to find it s associated label

User · Answer

Use a JQuery selector      label for   inputElement id

User · Answer

label for  inputId     text     This helped me to get the label of an input element using its ID

User · Answer

have you tried using document getElementbyID  id   where id is the id of the label or is the situation that you dont know which one you are looking for

User · Answer

First  scan the page for labels  and assign a reference to the label from the actual form element   var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL    for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          if  labels i  htmlFor                   var elem   document getElementById labels i  htmlFor            if  elem              elem label   labels i                      Then  you can simply go   document getElementById  MyFormElem   label innerHTML    Look ma this works      No need for a lookup array

User · Answer

The best answer works perfectly fine but in most cases  it is overkill and inefficient to loop through all the label elements   Here is an efficent function to get the label that goes with the input element   function getLabelForInput id        var el   document getElementById id       if   el          return null      var elPrev   el previousElementSibling      var elNext   el nextElementSibling      while  elPrev    elNext                if  elPrev                        if  elPrev htmlFor     id                  return elPrev              elPrev   elPrev previousElementSibling                    if  elNext                        if  elNext htmlFor     id                  return elNext              elNext   elNext nextElementSibling                      return null      For me  this one line of code was sufficient   el   document getElementById id  previousElementSibling    In most cases  the label will be very close or next to the input  which means the loop in the above function only needs to iterate a very small number of times

User · Answer

I have made for my own need  can be useful for somebody  JSFIDDLE     input   each function          if    trim   this  prev  label   text                     console log   nprev gt children             console log   trim   this  prev  label   text            else           if    trim   this  parent  label   text                         console log   nparent gt children                 console log   trim   this  parent  label   text                else               if    trim   this  parent   prev  label   text                             console log   nparent gt prev gt children                     console log   trim   this  parent   prev  label   text                    else                   console log  NOTFOUND  So set your own condition now

User · Answer

If you are using jQuery you can do something like this     label for  foo     hide       If you aren t using jQuery you ll have to search for the label   Here is a function that takes the element as an argument and returns the associated label  function findLableForControl el       var idVal   el id     labels   document getElementsByTagName  label       for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i             if  labels i  htmlFor    idVal             return labels i

User · Answer

If you re willing to use querySelector  and you can  even down to IE9 and sometimes IE8    another method becomes viable   If your form field has an ID  and you use the label s for attribute  this becomes pretty simple in modern JavaScript   var form   document querySelector   sample-form    var formFields   form querySelectorAll   form-field        forEach call formFields  function  formField        var inputId   formField id      var label   form querySelector  label for     inputId             console log label textContent         Some have noted about multiple labels  if they all use the same value for the for attribute  just use querySelectorAll instead of querySelector and loop through to get everything you need

User · Answer

have you tried using document getElementbyID  id   where id is the id of the label or is the situation that you dont know which one you are looking for

User · Answer

document querySelector  label for     vHtmlInputElement id          This answers the question in the simplest and leanest manner  This uses vanilla javascript and works on all main-stream proper browsers

User · Answer

Answer from Gijs was most valuable for me  but unfortunately the extension does not work   Here s a rewritten extension that works  it may help someone   jQuery fn getLabels   function          return this map function              var parentLabels     this  parents  label   get            var associatedLabels   this id   associatedLabels      label for      this id         get                 return parentLabels concat associatedLabels

User · Answer

If you are using jQuery you can do something like this     label for  foo     hide       If you aren t using jQuery you ll have to search for the label   Here is a function that takes the element as an argument and returns the associated label  function findLableForControl el       var idVal   el id     labels   document getElementsByTagName  label       for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i             if  labels i  htmlFor    idVal             return labels i

User · Answer

There is a labels property in the HTML5 standard which points to labels which are associated to an input element   So you could use something like this  support for native labels property but with a fallback for retrieving labels in case the browser doesn t support it      var getLabelsForInputElement   function element        var labels           var id   element id       if  element labels            return element labels             id  amp  amp  Array prototype push          apply labels  document querySelector  label for      id                while  element   element parentNode            if  element tagName toLowerCase       label                 labels push element                          return labels         ES6 var getLabelsForInputElement    element    gt        let labels      let id   element id       if  element labels            return element labels             if  id            labels   Array from document querySelector  label for    id                    while  element   element parentNode            if  element tagName toLowerCase       label                 labels push element                          return labels       Even easier if you re using jQuery     var getLabelsForInputElement   function element        var labels            var id   element id       if  element labels            return element labels             id  amp  amp   labels      label for      id                  labels   labels add   element  parents  label          return labels

User · Answer

First  scan the page for labels  and assign a reference to the label from the actual form element   var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL    for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          if  labels i  htmlFor                   var elem   document getElementById labels i  htmlFor            if  elem              elem label   labels i                      Then  you can simply go   document getElementById  MyFormElem   label innerHTML    Look ma this works      No need for a lookup array

User · Answer

The best answer works perfectly fine but in most cases  it is overkill and inefficient to loop through all the label elements   Here is an efficent function to get the label that goes with the input element   function getLabelForInput id        var el   document getElementById id       if   el          return null      var elPrev   el previousElementSibling      var elNext   el nextElementSibling      while  elPrev    elNext                if  elPrev                        if  elPrev htmlFor     id                  return elPrev              elPrev   elPrev previousElementSibling                    if  elNext                        if  elNext htmlFor     id                  return elNext              elNext   elNext nextElementSibling                      return null      For me  this one line of code was sufficient   el   document getElementById id  previousElementSibling    In most cases  the label will be very close or next to the input  which means the loop in the above function only needs to iterate a very small number of times

User · Answer

I am bit surprised no one is suggesting to use the CSS relationship method   in a style sheet you can reference a label from the element selector    lt style gt     for input element with class  YYY  input YYY   label      lt  style gt    if the checkbox has an id of  XXX  then the label would be found through jQuery by       XXX   label      You can also apply  find    label   to return the label from a jQuery checkbox element  ie useful when looping      input type checkbox    each  function         this  find    label

User · Answer

A really concise solution using ES6 features like destructuring and implicit returns to turn it into a handy one liner would be     const getLabels      labels  id      gt  labels    document querySelectorAll  label for   id       Or to simply get one label  not a NodeList     const getFirstLabel      labels  id      gt  labels  amp  amp  labels 0     document querySelector  label for   id

User · Answer

If you are using jQuery you can do something like this     label for  foo     hide       If you aren t using jQuery you ll have to search for the label   Here is a function that takes the element as an argument and returns the associated label  function findLableForControl el       var idVal   el id     labels   document getElementsByTagName  label       for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i             if  labels i  htmlFor    idVal             return labels i

User · Answer

label for  inputId     text     This helped me to get the label of an input element using its ID

User · Answer

All the other answers are extremely outdated    All you have to do is   input labels   HTML5 has been supported by all of the major browsers for many years already  There is absolutely no reason that you should have to make this from scratch on your own or polyfill it  Literally just use input labels and it solves all of your problems

User · Answer

I am a bit surprised that nobody seems to know that you re perfectly allowed to do    lt label gt Put your stuff here   lt input value  Stuff  gt  lt  label gt    Which won t get picked up by any of the suggested answers  but will label the input correctly   Here s some code that does take this case into account     fn getLabels   function         return this map function             var labels     this  parents  label            if  this id                labels add  label for      this id                            return labels get                 Usage       myfancyinput   getLabels      Some notes    The code was written for clarity  not for performance  More performant alternatives may be available  This code supports getting the labels of multiple items in one go  If that s not what you want  adapt as necessary  This still doesn t take care of things like aria-labelledby if you were to use that  left as an exercise to the reader   Using multiple labels is a tricky business when it comes to support in different user agents and assistive technologies  so test well and use at your own risk  etc  etc  Yes  you could also implement this without using jQuery   -

User · Answer

Earlier     var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL        lookup           i  label   for  i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          label   labels i       if  document getElementById label htmlFor             lookup label htmlFor    label            Later     var myLabel   lookup myInput id     Snarky comment  Yes  you can also do it with JQuery   -

User · Answer

As it has been already mentionned  the  currently  top-rated answer does not take into account the possibility to embed an input inside a label   Since nobody has posted a JQuery-free answer  here is mine    var labels   form getElementsByTagName   label    var input label       for  var i   0   i    labels length   i          var label   labels i       var input   label htmlFor                 document getElementById label htmlFor                  label getElementsByTagName  input   0       input label input outerHTML              label innerText    label textContent      innerText for IE8-     In this example  for the sake of simplicity  the lookup table is directly indexed by the input HTML elements  This is hardly efficient and you can adapt it however you like   You can use a form as base element  or the whole document if you want to get labels for multiple forms at once   No checks are made for incorrect HTML  multiple or missing inputs inside labels  missing input with corresponding htmlFor id  etc   but feel free to add them   You might want to trim the label texts  since trailing spaces are often present when the input is embedded in the label

User · Answer

Earlier     var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL        lookup           i  label   for  i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          label   labels i       if  document getElementById label htmlFor             lookup label htmlFor    label            Later     var myLabel   lookup myInput id     Snarky comment  Yes  you can also do it with JQuery   -

User · Answer

It is actually far easier to add an id to the label in the form itself  for example    lt label for  firstName  id  firstNameLabel  gt FirstName  lt  label gt    lt input type  text  id  firstName  name  firstName  class  input Field          pattern    a-zA-Z s -  2 25    maxlength  25         title  Alphabetic  Space  Dash Only  2-25 Characters Long          autocomplete  on  required   gt    Then  you can simply use something like this   if  myvariableforpagelang     es           set field label to spanish    document getElementById  firstNameLabel   innerHTML    Primer Nombre          set field tooltip  title to spanish    document getElementById  firstName   title    Alfab  tica  espacio  gui  n S  lo  2-25 caracteres de longitud       The javascript does have to be in a body onload function to work   Just a thought  works beautifully for me

User · Answer

There is a labels property in the HTML5 standard which points to labels which are associated to an input element   So you could use something like this  support for native labels property but with a fallback for retrieving labels in case the browser doesn t support it      var getLabelsForInputElement   function element        var labels           var id   element id       if  element labels            return element labels             id  amp  amp  Array prototype push          apply labels  document querySelector  label for      id                while  element   element parentNode            if  element tagName toLowerCase       label                 labels push element                          return labels         ES6 var getLabelsForInputElement    element    gt        let labels      let id   element id       if  element labels            return element labels             if  id            labels   Array from document querySelector  label for    id                    while  element   element parentNode            if  element tagName toLowerCase       label                 labels push element                          return labels       Even easier if you re using jQuery     var getLabelsForInputElement   function element        var labels            var id   element id       if  element labels            return element labels             id  amp  amp   labels      label for      id                  labels   labels add   element  parents  label          return labels

User · Answer

have you tried using document getElementbyID  id   where id is the id of the label or is the situation that you dont know which one you are looking for

User · Answer

I know this is old  but I had trouble with some solutions and pieced this together  I have tested this on Windows  Chrome  Firefox and MSIE  and OS X  Chrome and Safari  and believe this is the simplest solution  It works with these three style of attaching a label    lt label gt  lt input type  checkbox  class  c123  id  cb1  name  item1  gt item1 lt  label gt    lt input type  checkbox  class  c123  id  cb2  name  item2  gt item2 lt  input gt    lt input type  checkbox  class  c123  id  cb3  name  item3  gt  lt label for  cb3  gt item3 lt  label gt    Using jQuery       c123   click function          cb     this        lb     this  parent        alert   cb attr  id              lb text            My JSFiddle  http   jsfiddle net pnosko 6PQCw

User · Answer

I have made for my own need  can be useful for somebody  JSFIDDLE     input   each function          if    trim   this  prev  label   text                     console log   nprev gt children             console log   trim   this  prev  label   text            else           if    trim   this  parent  label   text                         console log   nparent gt children                 console log   trim   this  parent  label   text                else               if    trim   this  parent   prev  label   text                             console log   nparent gt prev gt children                     console log   trim   this  parent   prev  label   text                    else                   console log  NOTFOUND  So set your own condition now

User · Answer

A really concise solution using ES6 features like destructuring and implicit returns to turn it into a handy one liner would be     const getLabels      labels  id      gt  labels    document querySelectorAll  label for   id       Or to simply get one label  not a NodeList     const getFirstLabel      labels  id      gt  labels  amp  amp  labels 0     document querySelector  label for   id

User · Answer

with jquery you could do something like   var nameOfLabel   someInput attr  id    var label      label for      nameOfLabel

User · Answer

I am a bit surprised that nobody seems to know that you re perfectly allowed to do    lt label gt Put your stuff here   lt input value  Stuff  gt  lt  label gt    Which won t get picked up by any of the suggested answers  but will label the input correctly   Here s some code that does take this case into account     fn getLabels   function         return this map function             var labels     this  parents  label            if  this id                labels add  label for      this id                            return labels get                 Usage       myfancyinput   getLabels      Some notes    The code was written for clarity  not for performance  More performant alternatives may be available  This code supports getting the labels of multiple items in one go  If that s not what you want  adapt as necessary  This still doesn t take care of things like aria-labelledby if you were to use that  left as an exercise to the reader   Using multiple labels is a tricky business when it comes to support in different user agents and assistive technologies  so test well and use at your own risk  etc  etc  Yes  you could also implement this without using jQuery   -

User · Answer

Earlier     var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL        lookup           i  label   for  i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          label   labels i       if  document getElementById label htmlFor             lookup label htmlFor    label            Later     var myLabel   lookup myInput id     Snarky comment  Yes  you can also do it with JQuery   -

User · Answer

First  scan the page for labels  and assign a reference to the label from the actual form element   var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL    for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          if  labels i  htmlFor                   var elem   document getElementById labels i  htmlFor            if  elem              elem label   labels i                      Then  you can simply go   document getElementById  MyFormElem   label innerHTML    Look ma this works      No need for a lookup array

User · Answer

with jquery you could do something like   var nameOfLabel   someInput attr  id    var label      label for      nameOfLabel

User · Answer

document querySelector  label for     vHtmlInputElement id          This answers the question in the simplest and leanest manner  This uses vanilla javascript and works on all main-stream proper browsers

User · Answer

Answer from Gijs was most valuable for me  but unfortunately the extension does not work   Here s a rewritten extension that works  it may help someone   jQuery fn getLabels   function          return this map function              var parentLabels     this  parents  label   get            var associatedLabels   this id   associatedLabels      label for      this id         get                 return parentLabels concat associatedLabels

User · Answer

I know this is old  but I had trouble with some solutions and pieced this together  I have tested this on Windows  Chrome  Firefox and MSIE  and OS X  Chrome and Safari  and believe this is the simplest solution  It works with these three style of attaching a label    lt label gt  lt input type  checkbox  class  c123  id  cb1  name  item1  gt item1 lt  label gt    lt input type  checkbox  class  c123  id  cb2  name  item2  gt item2 lt  input gt    lt input type  checkbox  class  c123  id  cb3  name  item3  gt  lt label for  cb3  gt item3 lt  label gt    Using jQuery       c123   click function          cb     this        lb     this  parent        alert   cb attr  id              lb text            My JSFiddle  http   jsfiddle net pnosko 6PQCw

User · Answer

If you are using jQuery you can do something like this     label for  foo     hide       If you aren t using jQuery you ll have to search for the label   Here is a function that takes the element as an argument and returns the associated label  function findLableForControl el       var idVal   el id     labels   document getElementsByTagName  label       for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i             if  labels i  htmlFor    idVal             return labels i

User · Answer

All the other answers are extremely outdated    All you have to do is   input labels   HTML5 has been supported by all of the major browsers for many years already  There is absolutely no reason that you should have to make this from scratch on your own or polyfill it  Literally just use input labels and it solves all of your problems

User · Answer

I am bit surprised no one is suggesting to use the CSS relationship method   in a style sheet you can reference a label from the element selector    lt style gt     for input element with class  YYY  input YYY   label      lt  style gt    if the checkbox has an id of  XXX  then the label would be found through jQuery by       XXX   label      You can also apply  find    label   to return the label from a jQuery checkbox element  ie useful when looping      input type checkbox    each  function         this  find    label

User · Answer

As it has been already mentionned  the  currently  top-rated answer does not take into account the possibility to embed an input inside a label   Since nobody has posted a JQuery-free answer  here is mine    var labels   form getElementsByTagName   label    var input label       for  var i   0   i    labels length   i          var label   labels i       var input   label htmlFor                 document getElementById label htmlFor                  label getElementsByTagName  input   0       input label input outerHTML              label innerText    label textContent      innerText for IE8-     In this example  for the sake of simplicity  the lookup table is directly indexed by the input HTML elements  This is hardly efficient and you can adapt it however you like   You can use a form as base element  or the whole document if you want to get labels for multiple forms at once   No checks are made for incorrect HTML  multiple or missing inputs inside labels  missing input with corresponding htmlFor id  etc   but feel free to add them   You might want to trim the label texts  since trailing spaces are often present when the input is embedded in the label

User · Answer

have you tried using document getElementbyID  id   where id is the id of the label or is the situation that you dont know which one you are looking for

User · Answer

with jquery you could do something like   var nameOfLabel   someInput attr  id    var label      label for      nameOfLabel

User · Answer

with jquery you could do something like   var nameOfLabel   someInput attr  id    var label      label for      nameOfLabel

User · Answer

Earlier     var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL        lookup           i  label   for  i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          label   labels i       if  document getElementById label htmlFor             lookup label htmlFor    label            Later     var myLabel   lookup myInput id     Snarky comment  Yes  you can also do it with JQuery   -

User · Answer

It is actually far easier to add an id to the label in the form itself  for example    lt label for  firstName  id  firstNameLabel  gt FirstName  lt  label gt    lt input type  text  id  firstName  name  firstName  class  input Field          pattern    a-zA-Z s -  2 25    maxlength  25         title  Alphabetic  Space  Dash Only  2-25 Characters Long          autocomplete  on  required   gt    Then  you can simply use something like this   if  myvariableforpagelang     es           set field label to spanish    document getElementById  firstNameLabel   innerHTML    Primer Nombre          set field tooltip  title to spanish    document getElementById  firstName   title    Alfab  tica  espacio  gui  n S  lo  2-25 caracteres de longitud       The javascript does have to be in a body onload function to work   Just a thought  works beautifully for me

User · Answer

For future searchers    The following is a jQuery-ified version of FlySwat s accepted answer   var labels      label    for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          var fieldId   labels i  htmlFor      if  fieldId                  var elem           fieldId           if  elem length    0                elem data  label     labels i                            Using       myFormElemId   data  label   css  border   3px solid red

User · Answer

Use a JQuery selector      label for   inputElement id

User · Answer

For future searchers    The following is a jQuery-ified version of FlySwat s accepted answer   var labels      label    for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          var fieldId   labels i  htmlFor      if  fieldId                  var elem           fieldId           if  elem length    0                elem data  label     labels i                            Using       myFormElemId   data  label   css  border   3px solid red

User · Answer

First  scan the page for labels  and assign a reference to the label from the actual form element   var labels   document getElementsByTagName  LABEL    for  var i   0  i  lt  labels length  i          if  labels i  htmlFor                   var elem   document getElementById labels i  htmlFor            if  elem              elem label   labels i                      Then  you can simply go   document getElementById  MyFormElem   label innerHTML    Look ma this works      No need for a lookup array

User · Answer

If you re willing to use querySelector  and you can  even down to IE9 and sometimes IE8    another method becomes viable   If your form field has an ID  and you use the label s for attribute  this becomes pretty simple in modern JavaScript   var form   document querySelector   sample-form    var formFields   form querySelectorAll   form-field        forEach call formFields  function  formField        var inputId   formField id      var label   form querySelector  label for     inputId             console log label textContent         Some have noted about multiple labels  if they all use the same value for the for attribute  just use querySelectorAll instead of querySelector and loop through to get everything you need

[javascript] Find html label associated with a given input

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