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

Ryan Whittemore
Ryan Whittemore
14,915 Points
Posted by Ryan Whittemore
Ryan Whittemore
14,915 Points

trouble selecting all elements within <nav></nav> tag

i'm supposed to select all of the elements within the <nav> tags and I'm having trouble. I've tried using document.getElementsByTagName('nav'); I've also tried using document.querySelectorAll('nav'); I've re-watched the videos and to my knowledge I cannot find anything that helps in this particular situation.

js/app.js 
let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll('nav');
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">About</a></li>
          <li><a href="contact.html">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>

2 Answers

Kieran Barker
Kieran Barker
15,028 Points
Kieran Barker
Kieran Barker
15,028 Points 
let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll('nav a');

It’s just like a CSS selector :)

Ryan Whittemore
Ryan Whittemore
14,915 Points
Ryan Whittemore
Ryan Whittemore
14,915 Points

thank you, sir. also was able to apply this to the other questions in the section. Very helpful

Gonzalo Mordecki
Gonzalo Mordecki
13,746 Points
Gonzalo Mordecki
Gonzalo Mordecki
13,746 Points

Would you mind explain me why this does work! You solve my problem but I dont really understand why those elements are selected.

Thank you!

Kieran Barker
Kieran Barker
15,028 Points
Kieran Barker
Kieran Barker
15,028 Points

@gonzalomordecki Do you know much about CSS? Say I wanted to style every link on my page, and make them red. This CSS rule would accomplish that:

a {
  color: red;
}

But what if I had links inside a <nav> element, like this, and I only wanted to style those links, not every link on the page?

<nav>
  <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
</nav>

In that case, the following CSS would style only </a> elements inside <nav> elements:

nav a {
  color: red;
}

Keep in mind that a selector like this will look for <a> elements nested anywhere inside a <nav> element — they don’t have to be direct children. If you wanted to be more specific, you could do something like this:

nav ul li a {
  color: red;
}

You can use selectors just like this in JavaScript. I hope this helps! If not, why not try out the CSS Basics course?

Gonzalo Mordecki
Gonzalo Mordecki
13,746 Points
Gonzalo Mordecki
Gonzalo Mordecki
13,746 Points

Thank you so much! That's my problem, I don't know a lot off CSS, only with HTML and Javascript. CSS was going to be the next step, but may be I should start now!

Thank you!