Get specific Tag elements in body

Question

I'm trying to get all of the following tags inside the body (INPUT, A, and BUTTON) is there a way to do that without having to loop through all the tags inside the body using javascript

var allInputTags = document.body.getElementsByTagName('*');

I was thinking to do something like

var inputtags = document.body.getElementsByTagName('INPUT');
var atags = document.body.getElementsByTagName('A');
var buttontags = document.body.getElementsByTagName('BUTTON');

var allTags = inputtags + atags + buttontags;

but I think in that way I will not get the elements in the order they appear in the Body.

`inputtags + atags + buttontags` does not what you think it does. — Felix Kling, Oct 14 '12 at 17:59
How cross-browser do you need to be? [`document.querySelectorAll('input, a, button')`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/Document.querySelectorAll) is a possibility. — David Thomas, Oct 14 '12 at 17:59
Do you need to get the elements in the order that they appear in the document? — Guffa, Oct 14 '12 at 18:08

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

3

If the browser supports querySelectorAll ^[MDN], you can do :

var allTags = document.querySelectorAll('input, a, button');

The elements are returned in document order. See caniuse.com for a list of browsers that support querySelectorAll.

In all other browsers, you have to use getElementsByTagName but then I think it's going to be very difficult to get the element in order.

You can also consider to use a selector engine, such as Sizzle (the engine used by jQuery). Or if you plan to do complex DOM operations, jQuery itself.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

Community

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answered Oct 14 '12 at 18:00

Felix Kling

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`querySelectorAll` has excellent support as far as desktop browsers are concerned. – Ana Oct 14 '12 at 18:03

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 14 '12 at 18:00

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You can use Array.concat

var allTags = inputtags.concat(atags, buttontags);

answered Oct 14 '12 at 18:00

Anoop

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That won't give you the elements in the order that they appear in the document. – Guffa Oct 14 '12 at 21:40

Get specific Tag elements in body

2 Answers2