[Javascript] javascript and id's

[Anthony Ettinger]

--- Paul Novitski <paul at novitskisoftware.com> wrote:

> At 09:34 AM 10/4/2005, Anthony Ettinger wrote:
> ...
> >I want to change the value of an attribute of an
> input
> >field:
> >
> ><input type="text" name="foo">
> >
> >want to change it to
> >
> ><input type="text" name="bar">
> >
> >What I ended up doing was giving the <input>
> element
> >an id="searchfield", and then looping through it's
> >attributes using '.attributes' on the input object,
> >and testing the name of the attribute == 'name'.
> and
> >then replacing it's value with 'bar'.
> >
> >Is there an easier way to access an attribute of an
> >element if I know it's direct path?
> >
> >Seems to me very inefficient to have to do looping
> if
> >it's not necessary.
> 
> Anthony,
> 
> Giving an element an id so you can point to it
> without searching is 
> great if your situation allows.  I can think of
> situations in which I 
> might choose to search (loop) for an element --
> e.g., if I 
> potentially needed to select more than one element
> in a group, or if 
> I needed to select on the basis of attributes other
> than id or 
> tagName, or if I didn't have control over the
> markup.  In your case 
> you need to select an element by its name attribute
> and therefore 
> have to either search or add an id.
> 
> However, I can't see why you'd need to loop through
> the attributes in 
> the target element.  If you're using id to point to
> the element, you 
> don't need to test for the current name so just set
> the name and 
> you're done.  If you've found the target element by
> searching, you 
> can use the getAttribute() method to check each
> element's name as you 
> cycle through them.
> __________________________
> Either:
>          < input id="inputFoo" name="foo" ... />
> 
>          // point to it
>          var oInput =
> document.getElementById("inputFoo");
> 
>                  // if it exists, set its name
>                  if (oInput)
> oInput.setAttribute("bar");
> __________________________
> Or:
>          < form id="foo" ... >
>                  < input name="foo" ... />
>          </form>
> 
>          // point to the form
>          var oForm = document.getElementById("foo");
> 
>                  // bail if not found
>                  if (!oForm) return;
> 
>          // get array of all INPUT elements
>          var aInputs =
> oForm.getElementsByTagName("INPUT");
> 
>          // search for foo
>          for (var iInput = 0; iInput <
> aInputs.length; iInput++)
>          {
>                  // if found...
>                  if
> (aInputs[iInput].getAttribute("name") == "foo")
>                  {
>                          // change name
>                         
> aInputs[iInput].setAttribute("name", "bar");
> 
>                          // exit the FOR loop
>                          break;
>                  }
>          }

Yes, this is what I came up with:

function changeAttrib(id, attrib, newValue)
{
	var elemObj = document.getElementById(id);
	elemObj.setAttribute(attrib, newValue);

	return true;
}





Anthony Ettinger
ph: (408) 656-2473
blog: http://www.chovy.com


		
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