How to get the type of the DOM element?

Question

In a dropdown I want to get a custom attribute from my options element:

<select name="t" id="t">
    <option value="all">- all -</option>
    <optgroup label="Europe">
        <option selected value="1" myAttr="1">Fr</option>
        <option value="2" myAttr="0">Uk</option>
    </optgroup>
    <optgroup label="America">
        <option value="3" myAttr="1">USA</option>
        <option value="4" myAttr="0">CA</option>
    </optgroup>
    <optgroup label="Asia">
        <option value="5" myAttr="0">JP</option>
    </optgroup>
</select>

So I first loop over optgroup tags, and then I loop over option one's (Fiddle).

var temp = document.getElementById("t").childNodes;
// Loop the optGroup
for (var i = 0; i < temp.length; i++) {
    // Loop the option
    for (var j = 0; j < temp[i].childNodes.length; j++) {

Then I want to test if my element is an HTMLOptionElement before getting my custom attribute, I tried some tips from this SO question, but without success, I always get 'undefined'. Is thhre a specific method to use with DOM elements?

`window.console.log(temp[i].childNodes[j].nodeName);`? – putvande Jun 16 '14 at 09:30 — putvande, Jun 16 '14 at 09:30
http://stackoverflow.com/q/4878484/106261 – NimChimpsky Jun 16 '14 at 09:33 — NimChimpsky, Jun 16 '14 at 09:33

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

2

You need to use nodeName :

var div1 = document.getElementById("d1");
var div1Type = div1.nodeName;

And the difference between nodeName and tagName.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

Community

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answered Jun 16 '14 at 09:32

NimChimpsky

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 16 '14 at 09:31

1

Element.tagName - Returns the name of the element.

answered Jun 16 '14 at 09:31

peritus

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 16 '14 at 09:32

1

Every DOM element has a tagName attribute that you can use: myChildNode.tagName

answered Jun 16 '14 at 09:32

juanignaciosl

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How to get the type of the DOM element?

3 Answers3