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

Killeon Patterson
Killeon Patterson
18,527 Points
Posted by Killeon Patterson
Killeon Patterson
18,527 Points

Index.html selector

How do you select the three links nested in the 'nav' tags without adding id or class?

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

andren
andren
28,558 Points
andren
andren
28,558 Points

You use a descendant selector, you should have some experience with it if you have watched any of the basic CSS courses.

Anyway it is a selector where you simply type the name of different elements separated by a space, the last element you type in will be selected but only if it is nested within the other elements you have specified, so to select a links within nav elements you would write

let navigationLinks = document.querySelectorAll('nav a ');

The descendant selector is also compatible with id selectors and class selectors in place of plain tag selectors.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,046 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,046 Points

:point_right: You could do it combining the two tags in a descendant selector.

Since links are represented by "a" tags, you could select all links inside nav tags by "querySelectorAll('nav a')".