HTMLCollection: namedItem() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The namedItem() method of the HTMLCollection interface returns the first Element in the collection whose id or name attribute match the specified name, or null if no element matches.

In JavaScript, instead of calling collection.namedItem("value"), you can also directly access the name on the collection, like collection["value"], unless the name collides with one of the existing HTMLCollection properties.

Syntax

js
namedItem(key)

Parameters

key

A string representing the value of the id or name attribute of the element we are looking for.

Return value

The first Element in the HTMLCollection matching the key, or null if there is none. Always returns null if key is the empty string.

Example

HTML

html
<div id="personal">
  <span name="title">Dr.</span>
  <span name="first-name">Carina</span>
  <span name="last-name">Anand</span>
  <span id="degree">(MD)</span>
</div>

JavaScript

js
const container = document.getElementById("personal");

// Returns the HTMLSpanElement with the name "title" if no such element exists null is returned
const titleSpan = container.children.namedItem("title");

// The following variants return undefined instead of null if there's no element with a matching name or id
const firstNameSpan = container.children["first-name"];
const lastNameSpan = container.children["last-name"];

// Returns the span element with the id "degree"
const degreeSpan = container.children.namedItem("degree");

const output = document.createElement("div");
output.textContent = `Result: ${titleSpan.textContent} ${firstNameSpan.textContent} ${lastNameSpan.textContent} ${degreeSpan.textContent}`;

container.insertAdjacentElement("afterend", output);

Specifications

Specification
DOM
# dom-htmlcollection-nameditem-key

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
namedItem
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 1 (Release date: 2004-11-09)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 1 (Release date: 2003-06-23)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support