Welcome to the Treehouse Community
The Treehouse Community is a meeting place for developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels to get support. Collaborate here on code errors or bugs that you need feedback on, or asking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project. Join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today. (Note: Only Treehouse students can comment or ask questions, but non-students are welcome to browse our conversations.)
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and a supportive community. Start your free trial today.

Devjyoti Ghosh
2,422 PointsWhy backgroundColor?
Why is the property to change that background color in JavaScript backgroundColor instead of background-color used in CSS?
2 Answers

Michael Hulet
47,842 PointsIt's conventional in JavaScript to write variable and function names likeThis. Perhaps more importantly, however, the -
character in function and variable names is not allowed in JavaScript, and using one there will present a syntax error (or hang up the interpreter). This is because the -
character is also the subtraction operator in JavaScript, so if it sees one of those in a variable called background-color
, it'd think that it's supposed to subtract a variable color
from a variable background

treehousecoder20
4,224 PointsIt seems that I typed background and it works. I am not sure why use background-color or backgroundColor?
document.getElementById('myHeading').style.background = 'yellow'
Joel Stevenson
4,137 PointsJoel Stevenson
4,137 PointsHow would we know that was the variable name? Where did it come from? I'm confused.
Michael Hulet
47,842 PointsMichael Hulet
47,842 PointsUltimately, we know because the documentation says so. However, in general, if a property is written like-this-in-css, it'll be written likeThisInJavaScript