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JavaScript JavaScript and the DOM (Retiring) Getting a Handle on the DOM Using CSS Queries to Select Page Elements

Posted by Kirt Perez
Kirt Perez
7,374 Points

Node list vs HTML collection?

Hello, we've first learned about .getElementsByTagName and .getElementsByClassName and we know that they return a HTML collection that is like an array. This video, we learn .querySelectorAll. The docs for this method says it returns a node list rather than an HTML collection despite looking like another array. What is the distinction between the two?

2 Answers

Joseph Lander
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Joseph Lander
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 27,765 Points
Joseph Lander
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Joseph Lander
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 27,765 Points

I find this interesting as well. In my limited experience, I found that I lumped the two together as "not as useful as a fully-fledged array" and if I want to actually do much with the list, beyond looping through it, I convert it to an actual array.

However, w3schools has this page with some more detail specifically on your question towards the bottom: https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_htmldom_nodelist.asp