document.getElementById() not working

Question

I've seen other posts with the same title. Why does jQuery or a DOM method such as getElementById not find the element? does not apply. I am not looking for the ID before the html is loaded. Here is the whole file:

https://jsfiddle.net/2uxqmsth/ If you click on the link - the function is called. The relevant javascript is below:

    function getNewComment() {
        var xd = document.getElementById('#xdialog');

        if ( xd === null ) alert( 33 );
        else alert( 22 );
    }

`getElementById('xdialog')` not `getElementById('#xdialog')` — j08691, Apr 11 '16 at 02:21
Possible duplicate of [Why does jQuery or a DOM method such as getElementById not find the element?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14028959/why-does-jquery-or-a-dom-method-such-as-getelementbyid-not-find-the-element) — _“[…] `document.querySelector('#elementID')`, as opposed to the method by which an element is retrieved by its `id` under `document.getElementById('elementID')`; in the first the `#` character is essential, **in the second it would lead to the element not being retrieved.**”_ (emphasis mine) — already answered by the second answer. — Sebastian Simon, Apr 11 '16 at 02:29

Sumanth Jois · Answer 1 · 2016-04-11T02:24:46.020

2

 var xd = document.getElementById('#xdialog');

change this to

 var xd = document.getElementById('xdialog');

edited Apr 11 '16 at 02:24

answered Apr 11 '16 at 02:21

Sumanth Jois

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2
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I meant it for while selecting ids – Sumanth Jois Apr 11 '16 at 02:24

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 11 '16 at 02:24

You are mixing javascript with JQuery.

If you want to use javascript then it will be

var xd = document.getElementById('xdialog');

and not

var xd = document.getElementById('#xdialog');

If you want to use Jquery,then use like this:-

var xd = $("#xdialog");

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 11 '16 at 02:21

0

getElementById takes an ID, not a selector.

Your ID doesn't have a #.

answered Apr 11 '16 at 02:21

SLaks

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 11 '16 at 02:22

Check out the following documentation for document.getElementById()

You'll need to remove the # from your id, so your snippet should instead look like the following:

function getNewComment() {
  var xd = document.getElementById('xdialog');

  if ( xd === null ) alert( 33 );
  else alert( 22 );
}

document.getElementById() not working

4 Answers4