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JavaScript JavaScript and the DOM (Retiring) Making Changes to the DOM Appending Nodes

Michal Janek
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Michal Janek
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 30,654 Points
Posted by Michal Janek
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Michal Janek
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 30,654 Points

Why document.getElementByTagsName?

Why the sudden change to use document.getElementByTagsName when throughout the course querySelector() was used?

2 Answers

Evan Demaris
Evan Demaris
64,262 Points

Hi Michal,

This StackOverflow answer indicates that getElementsByTagName is marginally faster, is only useful for getting elements by tag name, and will get all elements instead of just the first one.

That said, he's probably using it in this video to help students know how to use it and that it's available to them as an option.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,271 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,271 Points

:point_right: These functions do very different things.

The querySelector function returns only the first element in the document that matches the chosen selector.

But the function getElementsByTagName (:point_left: note actual spelling!) returns a collection composed of every element in the document with the chosen tag.