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Javascript Getting An Elements Class Without Any Libraries

One of the fundamental aspects of working with JavaScript is interacting with HTML elements in a web page. When coding, you may often need to access an element's class for various purposes like adding or removing classes dynamically based on user interactions or specific conditions. In this article, we'll explore how you can get an element's class using plain JavaScript, without relying on any external libraries.

To get started, we first need to select the target element using its ID, class, or any other suitable selector. Once you have a reference to the element, you can access its class name using the `classList` property. The `classList` property returns a collection of the class attributes of the element as a DOMTokenList object.

Here's a simple example to demonstrate how you can retrieve an element's class:

Html

<title>JavaScript Getting Element's Class</title>


    <div id="targetElement" class="example-class"></div>

    
        const element = document.getElementById('targetElement');
        const elementClass = element.classList.value;

        console.log(elementClass);

In this example, we have a `

` element with the ID `targetElement` and a class named `example-class`. We then use JavaScript to get a reference to this element using `document.getElementById` and retrieve the class attribute value using `element.classList.value`.

If the element has multiple classes, you can access each class individually using the `contains` method of the `classList` object. The `contains` method returns `true` if the specified class is present on the element, and `false` otherwise.

Html

<title>JavaScript Getting Element's Class</title>


    <div id="targetElement" class="example-class another-class"></div>

    
        const element = document.getElementById('targetElement');
        const hasExampleClass = element.classList.contains('example-class');
        const hasOtherClass = element.classList.contains('other-class');

        console.log(hasExampleClass); // Output: true
        console.log(hasOtherClass); // Output: false

In this updated example, we check if the element has the classes `example-class` and `other-class`. By using the `contains` method, we can determine if a specific class is present on the element.

By mastering the simple JavaScript techniques outlined in this article, you can efficiently retrieve an element's class without the need for any external libraries. Understanding how to work with class attributes of elements provides you with essential skills to create dynamic and interactive web applications.