<DIV ID="parent1">
  <DIV ID="common">This is the first common element of the page</DIV>
</DIV>

<SPAN ID="parent2">
  <SPAN ID="common">This is the second common element of the page</SPAN>
</SPAN>

The key relevant object in Internet Explorer is document.all. By using document.all(elementID) you can quickly find and access every element in the document. The following JavaScript expression will return the number of elements in the document with ID="common":

document.all("common").length

Once you know how many elements you are looking for, you can iterate over them. The following JavaScript script prints the element types of those with ID="common":

function printCommon() {
  elementCount = document.all("common").length;
  for (i=0; i<elementCount; i++) {
    alert("Next element is of type " + document.all("common",i).nodeName);
  }
}

Try it. You can see from the types shown that indeed the two different elements are accessed.

People who read this tip also read these tips:

• Duplicating HTML Elements
• Probing the File Creation Date
• Global vs Local Variables
• Deploying Coordinated Universal Time
• Finding a File's Name and Path