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JavaScript

Posted by Chris Feltus
Chris Feltus
3,970 Points

Manipulating the DOM using .querySelector Question part II

I am trying to understand how to use .querySelector better, and made some simple HTML to target with it in javascript. The two variables I defined below are both returning `null. Would appreciate any pointers, thanks

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>I hate querySelector</title>

  </head>
  <body>

    <p>Misty is the leader of the water gym</p>
    <p>She uses a Staru pokemon</p>
    <p class='lead-sentance'>Her pokemon are weak to electricity</p>

    <p id='demo'>This text will be replaced with a queryselector</p>

    <div>
      <p>Misty wears overalls</p>
    </div>

    <a href='http://ign.com' target='ign.com' class='fancy'>visit IGN.com</a>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="snakes.js"></script>


     <h3>My Favorite Pokemon</h3>
      <ul id="incomplete-tasks">
        <li><input type="checkbox"><label>Ghastly</label><input type="text"><button class="edit">Edit</button><button class="delete">Delete</button></li>  
      </ul>

  </body>
</html>

var label = document.querySelector('[label="ghastly"]');
console.log(label);
//returns null

var listItem = document.getElementById('incomplete-tasks');
var editInput = listItem.querySelector('input[type=text]');
console.log(editInput)
//throws error 'uncaught TypeError: cannot read property querySelector of null'

1 Answer

Lorenzo Minto
Lorenzo Minto
13,898 Points
Lorenzo Minto
Lorenzo Minto
13,898 Points

On the first query selector the syntax is wrong: square brackets are used to target attributes and 'label' is not an attribute but actually an element itself. Plus in javascript there's not a way to target elements based on their inner HTML so you should probably give a title or a name to the label so you can then reference to it, if you want to go a step further there's a possible way to target elements based on their inner HTML in jQuery, a very powerful javascript library. On the second query selector you forgot the quotes around "text". Try this:

          var editInput = listItem.querySelector('input[type="text"]');