DOM - Element Object method - getAttribute

The getAttribute method gives the value of the attribute if it exists for a specified element.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for the usage of the getAttribute method.

elementObj.getAttribute(name)

S.No.	Parameter & Description
1	Name It holds the name of the attribute to retrieve.

This method returns the value of the attribute as a string if present, otherwise it will be specified as null.

Example

node.xml contents are as below −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<Company>
   <Employee category = "Technical">
      <FirstName>Tanmay</FirstName>
      <LastName>Patil</LastName>
      <ContactNo>1234567890</ContactNo>
      <Email>tanmaypatil@xyz.com</Email>
   </Employee>
   
   <Employee category = "Non-Technical">
      <FirstName>Taniya</FirstName>
      <LastName>Mishra</LastName>
      <ContactNo>1234667898</ContactNo>
      <Email>taniyamishra@xyz.com</Email>
   </Employee>
   
   <Employee category = "Management">
      <FirstName>Tanisha</FirstName>
      <LastName>Sharma</LastName>
      <ContactNo>1234562350</ContactNo>
      <Email>tanishasharma@xyz.com</Email>
   </Employee>
</Company>

Following example demonstrates the usage of the getAttribute method −

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <body>
      <script>
         if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
            xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
         } else {
            xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
         }
         xmlhttp.open("GET","/dom/node.xml",false);
         xmlhttp.send();
         xmlDoc = xmlhttp.responseXML;
         x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName('Employee')[2];
         document.write("The attribute is: ");
         document.write(x.getAttribute('category'));

      </script>
   </body>
</html>

Execution

Save this file as elementattribute_getattribute.html on the server path (this file and node.xml should be on the same path in your server). We will get the output as shown below −

The attribute is: Management

dom_element_object.htm