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JavaScript JavaScript and the DOM (Retiring) Getting a Handle on the DOM Selecting Multiple Elements

Posted by Josephine Höltermann
Josephine Höltermann
4,414 Points

I dont see why my selector wouldn't work here. Please give me a hint I am stuck.

how can I make this work?

js/app.js 
var listItems = document.getElementById('#rainbow');
var colors = ["#C2272D", "#F8931F", "#FFFF01", "#009245", "#0193D9", "#0C04ED", "#612F90"];

for(var i = 0; i < colors.length; i ++) {
  listItems[i].style.color = colors[i];    
}
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Rainbow!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <ul id="rainbow">
      <li>This should be red</li>
      <li>This should be orange</li>
      <li>This should be yellow</li>
      <li>This should be green</li>
      <li>This should be blue</li>
      <li>This should be indigo</li>
      <li>This should be violet</li>
    </ul>
    <script src="js/app.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

2 Answers

Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points
Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points

Josephine Höltermann I just updated my response. You need to grab the individual li elems not the ul.

Josephine Höltermann
Josephine Höltermann
4,414 Points

ah thanks I see! the devil is in the detail!

Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points
Zack Jackson
Zack Jackson
30,220 Points

You don't need the # in your selector. Just wrap the id in quotes.

The next thing is that with your id selector, you are selecting the ul, not each li. So your selector should chain onto the end something like .getElementsByTagName("li"); to get each li element.

Josephine Höltermann
Josephine Höltermann
4,414 Points

that would still not solve the problem unfortunately. I think I have to tell 'it' that I want all <ul> elements that are children of the list with id rainbow but I can't see how I would do that. I am fairly new to Javascript.