JavaScript HTML DOM Collections


The HTMLCollection Object

The getElementsByTagName() method returns an HTMLCollection object.

An HTMLCollection object is an array-like list (collection) of HTML elements.

The following code selects all <p> elements in a document:

Example

const myCollection = document.getElementsByTagName("p");

The elements in the collection can be accessed by an index number.

To access the second <p> element you can write:

myCollection[1]
Try it Yourself »

Note: The index starts at 0.


HTML HTMLCollection Length

The length property defines the number of elements in an HTMLCollection:

Example

myCollection.length
Try it Yourself »

The length property is useful when you want to loop through the elements in a collection:

Example

Change the text color of all <p> elements:

const myCollection = document.getElementsByTagName("p");
for (let i = 0; i < myCollection.length; i++) {
  myCollection[i].style.color = "red";
}
Try it Yourself »

An HTMLCollection is NOT an array!

An HTMLCollection may look like an array, but it is not.

You can loop through the list and refer to the elements with a number (just like an array).

However, you cannot use array methods like valueOf(), pop(), push(), or join() on an HTMLCollection.


Copyright 1999-2023 by Refsnes Data. All Rights Reserved.