The Element.attributes property returns a live collection of all attribute nodes registered to the specified node. It is a NamedNodeMap, not an Array, so it has no Array methods and the Attr nodes' indexes may differ among browsers. To be more specific, attributes is a key/value pair of strings that represents any information regarding that attribute.
Syntax
var attr = element.attributes;
Example
Basic examples
// Get the first <p> element in the document
var para = document.getElementsByTagName("p")[0];
var atts = para.attributes;
Enumerating elements attributes
Numerical indexing is useful for going through all of an element's attributes.
The following example runs through the attribute nodes for the element in the document with id "paragraph", and prints each attribute's value.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Attributes example</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
function listAttributes() {
var paragraph = document.getElementById("paragraph");
var result = document.getElementById("result");
// First, let's verify that the paragraph has some attributes
if (paragraph.hasAttributes()) {
var attrs = paragraph.attributes;
var output = "";
for(var i = attrs.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
output += attrs[i].name + "->" + attrs[i].value;
}
result.value = output;
} else {
result.value = "No attributes to show";
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p id="paragraph" style="color: green;">Sample Paragraph</p>
<form action="">
<p>
<input type="button" value="Show first attribute name and value"
onclick="listAttributes();">
<input id="result" type="text" value="">
</p>
</form>
</body>
</html>
Specifications
| Specification | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| DOM The definition of 'Element.attributes' in that specification. |
Living Standard | From Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification, moved from Node to Element |
| Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification The definition of 'Element.attributes' in that specification. |
Recommendation | No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification |
| Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification The definition of 'Element.attributes' in that specification. |
Recommendation | No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification |
| Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification The definition of 'Element.attributes' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition. |
Browser compatibility
| Feature | Chrome | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) [1] | 6.0 [2] | (Yes) | (Yes) |
| Feature | Android | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Mobile | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) [1] | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |
[1] Before Firefox 22, this attribute was implemented in the Node interface (inherited by Element). It has been moved to this interface to conform to the specification and the usage of other browsers.
[2] Internet Explorer 5.5 returns a map containing the values rather than the attribute objects.
See also
NamedNodeMap, the interface of the returned object- Cross-browser compatibility considerations: on quirksmode