Element: matches() method
Baseline
Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since April 2017.
The matches() method of the Element interface tests whether the element would be selected by the specified CSS selector.
Syntax
js
matches(selectors)
Parameters
selectors-
A string containing valid CSS selectors to test the
Elementagainst.
Return value
true if the Element matches the selectors. Otherwise, false.
Exceptions
SyntaxErrorDOMException-
Thrown if
selectorscannot be parsed as a CSS selector list.
Examples
HTML
html
<ul id="birds">
<li>Orange-winged parrot</li>
<li class="endangered">Philippine eagle</li>
<li>Great white pelican</li>
</ul>
JavaScript
js
const birds = document.querySelectorAll("li");
for (const bird of birds) {
if (bird.matches(".endangered")) {
console.log(`The ${bird.textContent} is endangered!`);
}
}
This will log "The Philippine eagle is endangered!" to the console, since the element
has indeed a class attribute with value endangered.
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| DOM # ref-for-dom-element-matches① |
Browser compatibility
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See also
- CSS selectors module
- Other
Elementmethods that take selectors:Element.querySelector(),Element.querySelectorAll(), andelement.closest().