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JavaScript jQuery Basics Working with jQuery Collections Changing Element Styles and Classes

Posted by Nick Burton
Nick Burton
7,387 Points

'background-color vs 'backgroundColor'

I wrote my CSS method with 'background-color' as the first argument and not 'backgroundColor' and it worked. What does that mean? Is it just bad practice? Will some properties not work if I type them out the CSS way or is it just convension to name them the JS way?

3 Answers

Carlos Zuluaga
Carlos Zuluaga
21,184 Points
Carlos Zuluaga
Carlos Zuluaga
21,184 Points

Hi Nick Burton,

To change a CSS property on the DOM using JavaScript you need to use the appropriate syntax, i.e., backgroundColor instead of background-color.

To set the style of an element on JavaScript use *element*.style.*cssPropertyDOMNotation*.

I'm not entirely sure if typing CSS version could work in every case. But definitely, camelCase is a standard on JavaScript DOM Manipulation for CSS properties.

Please refer to the Common CSS Properties Reference on MDN

Axel Perossa
Axel Perossa
13,930 Points
Axel Perossa
Axel Perossa
13,930 Points

Late reply, but what you described is a JQuery feature:

Also, jQuery can equally interpret the CSS and DOM formatting of multiple-word properties. For example, jQuery understands and returns the correct value for both .css( "background-color" ) and .css( "backgroundColor" )

Nick Burton
Nick Burton
7,387 Points
Nick Burton
Nick Burton
7,387 Points

Cool. I'll be sure to continue using camelcase. Thanks a lot!