Element.name

Summary

name gets or sets the name property of a DOM object; it only applies to the following elements: <a>, <applet>, <button>, <form>, <frame>, <iframe>, <img>, <input>, <map>, <meta>, <object>, <param>, <select>, and <textarea>.

Note: The name property doesn't exist for other elements; unlike tagName and nodeName, it is not a property of the Node, Element or HTMLElement interfaces.

name can be used in the document.getElementsByName() method, a form and with the form elements collection. When used with a form or elements collection, it may return a single element or a collection.

Syntax

JavaScript
HTMLElement.name = string;
var elName = HTMLElement.name;

var fControl = HTMLFormElement.elementName;
var controlCollection = HTMLFormElement.elements.elementName;

Example

JavaScript
<form action="" name="formA">
  <input type="text" value="foo">
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">

  // Get a reference to the first element in the form
  var formElement = document.forms['formA'].elements[0];

  // Give it a name
  formElement.name = 'inputA';

  // Show the value of the input
  alert(document.forms['formA'].elements['inputA'].value);
 
</script>

Notes

In Internet Explorer (IE), the name property of DOM objects created using document.createElement() can't be set or modified.

Specification

W3C DOM 2 HTML Specification:

License

© 2016 Mozilla Contributors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/api/element/name

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