Element.className

Summary

className gets and sets the value of the class attribute of the specified element.

Syntax

var cName = elementNodeReference.className;
elementNodeReference.className = cName;
  • cName is a string variable representing the class or space-separated classes of the current element.

Example

let elm = document.getElementById('item');
if(elm.className === 'active'){
    elm.className = 'inactive';
} else {
    elm.className = 'active';
}

Notes

The name className is used for this property instead of class because of conflicts with the "class" keyword in many languages which are used to manipulate the DOM.

className can also be an instance of SVGAnimatedString if the element is an SVGElement. It is better to get/set the className of an element using Element.getAttribute and Element.setAttribute if you are dealing with SVG elements 

elm.setAttribute('class', elm.getAttribute('class'))

 

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
DOM
The definition of 'element.className' in that specification.
Living Standard  
DOM4
The definition of 'element.className' in that specification.
Recommendation  
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification
The definition of 'element.className' in that specification.
Recommendation Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Edge Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)
Feature Android Chrome for Android Edge Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Last updated by: muralikg,