DHTML Collections

---

DOM Level 1 Specification.

Retrieves a collection of all control elements in a given FORM.

[ collElements = ] form.elements

[ oObject = ] form.elements ( vIndex [ , iSubIndex ] )

collElements	Reference to an array of elements contained by the object.
oObject	Reference to an individual item in the array of elements contained by the object.
vIndex	Required. Number or string specifying the element or collection to retrieve. If this parameter is a number, the method returns the element in the collection at the given position, where the first element has value 0, the second has 1, and so on. If this parameter is a string and there is more than one element with the name or id property equal to the string, the method returns a collection of matching elements.
iSubIndex	Optional. Position of an element to retrieve. This parameter is used when vIndex is a string. The method uses the string to construct a collection of all elements that have a name or id equal to the string and then retrieves from this collection the element at the position specified by iSubIndex.

The elements collection returns an array, in source order, of all the control elements in a specified form.

This collection can contain any combination of INPUT, SELECT, and TEXTAREA objects.

Thus, an element in any given form can be referenced as:

document.formName.elements [ controlIndex ] 
document [ 'formName' ].elements [ controlIndex ] 
document.forms [ formIndex ].elements [ controlIndex ] 

As the collection is zero-based, the first element is elements [ 0 ] , the second is elements [ 1 ] , and so on.

In addition, an element in a form may also be referenced by its name, and in DOM-compliant browsers, by its id property.

document.formName.elementName
document [ 'formName' ].elementName
document.forms [ formIndex ].elementName
document.getElementById ( 'elementID' ) 

This example shows how the elements collection is used to retrieve the name of each control element in the form.

Full Name
Address
Account No.

<form name="formName" onsubmit="getFormEls ( this )">
<table align="center" ... >
   ... form control definitions ...
</table>
</form>

<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
function getFormEls ( form ) {
   els = form.elements;
   html = "";
   for ( e = 0; e < els.length; e ++ )
      html += els ( e ).name + "\n";
   alert ( html );
}
//—>
</script>

FORM

forms