How can I determine the type of an HTML element in JavaScript

Question

I need a way to determine the type of an HTML element in JavaScript  It has the ID  but the element itself could be a  lt div gt   a  lt form gt  field  a  lt fieldset gt   etc  How can I achieve this

User · Accepted Answer

nodeName is the attribute you are looking for  For example   var elt   document getElementById  foo    console log elt nodeName     Note that nodeName returns the element name capitalized and without the angle brackets  which means that if you want to check if an element is an  lt div gt  element you could do it as follows   elt nodeName     DIV    While this would not give you the expected results   elt nodeName      lt div gt

User · Answer

What about element tagName   See also tagName docs on MDN

User · Answer

You can use generic code inspection via instanceof   var e   document getElementById   my-element    if  e instanceof HTMLInputElement                 lt input gt  elseif  e instanceof HTMLSelectElement            lt select gt  elseif  e instanceof HTMLTextAreaElement          lt textarea gt  elseif                                           any interface   Look here for a complete list of interfaces

User · Answer

What about element tagName   See also tagName docs on MDN

User · Answer

Sometimes you want element constructor name  document createElement  div   constructor name    HTMLDivElement  document createElement  a   constructor name    HTMLAnchorElement  document createElement  foo   constructor name    HTMLUnknownElement

User · Answer

You can use generic code inspection via instanceof   var e   document getElementById   my-element    if  e instanceof HTMLInputElement                 lt input gt  elseif  e instanceof HTMLSelectElement            lt select gt  elseif  e instanceof HTMLTextAreaElement          lt textarea gt  elseif                                           any interface   Look here for a complete list of interfaces

User · Answer

What about element tagName   See also tagName docs on MDN

User · Answer

Sometimes you want element constructor name  document createElement  div   constructor name    HTMLDivElement  document createElement  a   constructor name    HTMLAnchorElement  document createElement  foo   constructor name    HTMLUnknownElement

User · Answer

What about element tagName   See also tagName docs on MDN

[javascript] How can I determine the type of an HTML element in JavaScript?

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