JavaScript getting an elements class without any libraries

Question

I would like to get the value of the class attribute for an element using JavaScript. However in this particular situation I don't have the luxury of library such as YUI, jQuery, etc. and need to stick to the basics.

Specifically, I am looping over a table and want to check the class of the cell.

I tried:

var colClass = el.getAttribute('class');

and

var colClass = el.class;

But neither seems to be working. In the above example, el is set from cells array of a table, such as var el = document.getElementById('myTable').rows[y].cells[y];

Answer 1

className?

http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/prop_html_classname.asp

Answer 2

This line that you posted should work:

var colClass = el.getAttribute('class');

Could you post what error you get in the browser? Make sure that el is not null.

If you won't get that one to work, the attribute of the object is className, not class:

var colClass = el.className;

Answer 3

Maybe you should try this

var colClass = el.className

Answer 4

You could try the functions found at the bottom of this site:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1143850&page=1