Element.querySelectorAll()

The Element method querySelectorAll() returns a static (not live) NodeList representing a list of elements matching the specified group of selectors which are descendants of the element on which the method was called.

Syntax

elementList = parentNode.querySelectorAll(selectors);

Parameters

selectors

A DOMString containing one or more selectors to match against. This string must be a valid CSS selector string; if it's not, a SyntaxError exception is thrown. See Locating DOM elements using selectors for more information about using selectors to identify elements. Multiple selectors may be specified by separating them using commas.

Return value

A non-live NodeList containing one Element object for each descendant node that matches at least one of the specified selectors.

Exceptions

SyntaxError

The syntax of the specified selectors string is not valid.

Examples

Obtaining a list of matches

To obtain a NodeList of all of the <p> elements contained within the element "myBox":

var matches = myBox.querySelectorAll("p");

This example returns a list of all <div> elements within "myBox" with a class of either "note" or "alert":

var matches = myBox.querySelectorAll("div.note, div.alert");

Here, we get a list of the document's <p> elements whose immediate parent element is a div with the class "highlighted" and which are located inside a container whose ID is "test".

var container = document.querySelector("#test");
var matches = container.querySelectorAll("div.highlighted > p");

This example uses an attribute selector to return a list of the iframe elements in the document that contain an attribute named "data-src":

var matches = document.querySelectorAll("iframe[data-src]");

Here, an attribute selector is used to return a list of the list items contained within a list whose ID is "userlist" which have a "data-active" attribute whose value is "1":

var container = document.querySelector("#userlist");
var matches = container.querySelectorAll("li[data-active='1']");

Accessing the matches

Once the NodeList of matching elements is returned, you can examine it just like any array. If the array is empty (that is, its length property is 0), then no matches were found.

Otherwise, you can simply use standard array notation to access the contents of the list. You can use any common looping statement, such as:

var highlightedItems = userList.querySelectorAll(".highlighted");

highlightedItems.forEach(function(userItem) {
  deleteUser(userItem);
});

User notes

querySelectorAll() behaves differently than most common JavaScript DOM libraries, which might lead to unexpected results.

HTML

Consider this HTML, with its three nested <div> blocks.

<div class="outer">
  <div class="select">
    <div class="inner">
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

JavaScript

var select = document.querySelector('.select');
var inner = select.querySelectorAll('.outer .inner');
inner.length; // 1, not 0!

In this example, when selecting ".outer .inner" in the context the <div> with the class "select", the element with the class ".inner" is still found, even though .outer is not a descendant of the base element on which the search is performed (".select"). By default, querySelectorAll() only verifies that the last element in the selector is within the search scope.

The :scope pseudo-class restores the expected behavior, only matching selectors on descendants of the base element:

var select = document.querySelector('.select');
var inner = select.querySelectorAll(':scope .outer .inner');
inner.length; // 0

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Locating DOM elements using selectors
• Attribute selectors in the CSS Guide
• Attribute selectors in the MDN Learning Area
• Element.querySelector()
• Document.querySelector() and Document.querySelectorAll()
• DocumentFragment.querySelector() and DocumentFragment.querySelectorAll()
• ParentNode.querySelector() and ParentNode.querySelectorAll()
• Code snippets for querySelector()