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document.getElementsByName

The getElementsByName() method of the document object returns a NodeList Collection of elements with a given name in the document.

Syntax

elements = document.getElementsByName(name)

elements is a live NodeList Collection, meaning it automatically updates as new elements with the same name are added to/removed from the document.
name is the value of the name attribute of the element(s).

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<title>Example: using document.getElementsByName</title>

<input type="hidden" name="up">
<input type="hidden" name="down">

<script>
  var up_names = document.getElementsByName("up");
  console.log(up_names[0].tagName); // displays "INPUT"
</script>
</html>

Notes

The name attribute can only be applied in (X)HTML documents.

The returned NodeList Collection contains all elements with the given name, such as <meta>, <object>, and even elements which do not support the name attribute at all.

The getElementsByName method works differently in IE10 and below. There, getElementsByName() also returns elements that have an id attribute with the specified value. Be careful not to use the same string as both a name and an id.

The getElementsByName method works differently in IE. There, getElementsByName() does not return all elements which may not have a name attribute (such as <span>).

Both IE and Edge return an HTMLCollection, not a NodeList

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living Standard The definition of 'Document.getElementsByName()' in that specification.	Living Standard
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification The definition of 'Document.getElementsByName()' in that specification.	Obsolete	Initial definition

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	Yes	Yes Yes Returns an `HTMLCollection`, not a `NodeList`	Yes	Yes Yes Returns an `HTMLCollection`, not a `NodeList`	Yes	Yes