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JavaScript Interactive Web Pages with JavaScript Selecting Elements and Adding Events with JavaScript Selecting Elements

Posted by Gary Christie
Gary Christie
5,151 Points

Stuck on Challenge Question

The Challenge question says: Select the second SPAN element on the page and assign it to the variable lastName on line 2. Take a look in the index.html to see the structure of the document.

app.js: var fullName = document.getElementById("full_name"); var lastName;

index.html: <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head></head> <body> <h1 id="full_name"><span class="first_name">Andrew</span> <span class="last_name">Chalkley</span></h1>

<script src="app.js"></script> </body> </html>

app.js 
var fullName;
var lastName;
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<h1 id="full_name"><span class="first_name">Andrew</span> <span class="last_name">Chalkley</span></h1>

<script src="app.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

3 Answers

Robert Richey
Robert Richey
Courses Plus Student 16,352 Points

Hi Gary,

There are a couple ways to go about this. Similar to the first challenge, you'll need to assign an element to the lastName variable.

// the second span has a class name of last_name. even though there's only one matching element,
// an array is returned unless you specify the index of the element in the array you want.
document.getElementsByClassName("last_name")[0];

//or

// there are two spans in the document. need the second one
document.getElementsByTagName("span")[1];
curtis allen
curtis allen
28,800 Points
curtis allen
curtis allen
28,800 Points

Hi Gary, Here is the answer.

lastName = document.getElementsByTagName("span")[1];
Gary Christie
Gary Christie
5,151 Points
Gary Christie
Gary Christie
5,151 Points

Thanks. I actually thought of that answer and thought that it couldn't possibly be it. The other answer you put getElementsByClassName I actually tried and it didn't go thru

Robert Richey
Robert Richey
Courses Plus Student 16,352 Points

That's odd, because that's the one I used to complete the challenge. I'll double check it.

Edit: this works for me

var fullName = document.getElementById("full_name");
var lastName = document.getElementsByClassName("last_name")[0];
curtis allen
curtis allen
28,800 Points

Maybe try to open the challenge in another browser and see if it takes the answer. I've had the same issue on other challenges. Also my answer is correct.