Web/API/Element/getElementsByTagNameNS

The Element.getElementsByTagNameNS() method returns a live HTMLCollection of elements with the given tag name belonging to the given namespace. It is similar to Document.getElementsByTagNameNS, except that its search is restricted to descendants of the specified element.

Syntax

elements = element.getElementsByTagNameNS(namespaceURI, localName)

elements is a live HTMLCollection of found elements in the order they appear in the tree.
element is the element from where the search should start. Note that only the descendants of this element are included in the search, not the node itself.
namespaceURI is the namespace URI of elements to look for (see Element.namespaceURI and Attr.namespaceURI). For example, if you need to look for XHTML elements, use the XHTML namespace URI, http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml.
localName is either the local name of elements to look for or the special value "*", which matches all elements (see Element.localName and Attr.localName).

Example

// check the alignment on a number of cells in a table in an XHTML document.
var table = document.getElementById("forecast-table");
var cells = table.getElementsByTagNameNS("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml", "td");

for (var i = 0; i < cells.length; i++) {
    var axis = cells[i].getAttribute("axis");
    if (axis == "year") {
        // grab the data
    }
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOMThe definition of 'Element.getElementsByTagNameNS()' in that specification.	Living Standard	Changed the return value from `NodeList` to `HTMLCollection`.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core SpecificationThe definition of 'Element.getElementsByTagNameNS()' in that specification.	Obsolete	No change from Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core SpecificationThe definition of 'Element.getElementsByTagNameNS()' in that specification.	Obsolete	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`getElementsByTagNameNS`	Chrome Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Initially, this method was returning a `NodeList`; it was then changed to reflect the spec change.	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' The behavior of `element.getElementsByTagNameNS` changed between Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6. In Firefox 3.5 and before, this function would automatically case-fold any queries so that a search for "foo" would match "Foo" or "foo". In Firefox 3.6 and later this function is now case-sensitive so that a query for "foo" will only match "foo" and not "Foo". For more background on this, please see the comment from Henri Sivonen about the change. You can also look at the relevant part of the standard, which states which parts of the API are case-sensitive and which parts aren't. Notes' Prior to Firefox 19, this method was returning a `NodeList`; it was then changed to reflects the spec change.	IE Full support 5.5	Opera Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' Initially, this method was returning a `NodeList`; it was then changed to reflect the spec change.	Safari Full support 6 Notes' Full support 6 Notes' Notes' Initially, this method was returning a `NodeList`; it was then changed to reflect the spec change.	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' The behavior of `element.getElementsByTagNameNS` changed between Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6. In Firefox 3.5 and before, this function would automatically case-fold any queries so that a search for "foo" would match "Foo" or "foo". In Firefox 3.6 and later this function is now case-sensitive so that a query for "foo" will only match "foo" and not "Foo". For more background on this, please see the comment from Henri Sivonen about the change. You can also look at the relevant part of the standard, which states which parts of the API are case-sensitive and which parts aren't. Notes' Prior to Firefox 19, this method was returning a `NodeList`; it was then changed to reflects the spec change.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
getElementsByTagNameNS(*)	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 6	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' The behavior of `element.getElementsByTagNameNS` changed between Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6. In Firefox 3.5 and before, this function would automatically case-fold any queries so that a search for "foo" would match "Foo" or "foo". In Firefox 3.6 and later this function is now case-sensitive so that a query for "foo" will only match "foo" and not "Foo". For more background on this, please see the comment from Henri Sivonen about the change. You can also look at the relevant part of the standard, which states which parts of the API are case-sensitive and which parts aren't. Notes' Prior to Firefox 19, this method was returning a `NodeList`; it was then changed to reflects the spec change.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.

Element.getElementsByTagNameNS() by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.