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

Hudson Lanier
Hudson Lanier
6,329 Points
Posted by Hudson Lanier
Hudson Lanier
6,329 Points

My code for getElementsByClassName is only returning 1 value. I'm a little confused about how to get all of the values.

I know that I can pull all of the values out of the getElementsByClassName by creating a for loop that gives all the values, but I'm not really sure why I'm getting an incorrect answer for this question. I've been hung up on it all afternoon.

js/app.js 
let navigationLinks = document.getElementsByClassName('selected');
let galleryLinks;
let footerImages;
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Nick Pettit | Designer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/normalize.css">
    <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Changa+One|Open+Sans:400italic,700italic,400,700,800' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/responsive.css">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  </head>
  <body>
    <header>
      <a href="index.html" id="logo">
        <h1>Nick Pettit</h1>
        <h2>Designer</h2>
      </a>
      <nav>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="index.html" class="selected">Portfolio</a></li>
          <li><a href="about.html" class="selected">About</a></li>
          <li><a href="contact.html" class="selected">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
      </nav>
    </header>
    <div id="wrapper">
      <section>
        <ul id="gallery">
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-01.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-01.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Experimentation with color and texture.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-02.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-02.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Playing with blending modes in Photoshop.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </section>
      <footer>
        <a href="http://twitter.com/nickrp"><img src="img/twitter-wrap.png" alt="Twitter Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <a href="http://facebook.com/nickpettit"><img src="img/facebook-wrap.png" alt="Facebook Logo" class="social-icon"></a>
        <p>&copy; 2016 Nick Pettit.</p>
      </footer>
    </div>
  <script src="js/app.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

1 Answer

Gabriel Plackey
Gabriel Plackey
11,064 Points
Gabriel Plackey
Gabriel Plackey
11,064 Points

That class name is only on one of the nav li elements, therefore it's only returning one item. In the follow code, we will select all of them

let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll("nav ul li a");
Hudson Lanier
Hudson Lanier
6,329 Points
Hudson Lanier
Hudson Lanier
6,329 Points

I actually went into the HTML and added that class to the other nav li elements to address this issue. That should work, right?

Gabriel Plackey
Gabriel Plackey
11,064 Points
Gabriel Plackey
Gabriel Plackey
11,064 Points

I imagine that would work, but I don't think it would for this code challenge nor do I think it's best practice to do so.