Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

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

Michal Janek
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Michal Janek
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 30,654 Points
Posted by Michal Janek
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
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
231,248 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,248 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.