Select elements by Multiple IDs using JavaScript

# Select elements by Multiple IDs using JavaScript

Use the querySelectorAll() method to select elements by multiple ids, e.g. document.querySelectorAll('#box1, #box2, #box3').

The method takes a string containing one or more selectors as a parameter and returns a collection of the matching elements.

Here is the HTML for the examples.

index.html

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>bobbyhadz.com</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
  </head>

  <body>
    <div id="box1">Box 1</div>
    <div id="box2">Box 2</div>
    <div id="box3">Box 3</div>

    <script src="index.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

And here is the related JavaScript code.

index.js

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const boxes = document.querySelectorAll('#box1, #box2, #box3');

// 👇️ [div#box1, div#box2, div#box3]
console.log(boxes);

We passed multiple, comma-separated selectors to the document.querySelectorAll method to get a NodeList of the elements with IDs box1, box2 and box3.

If none of the selectors matches an element, an empty NodeList is returned.

The string you pass to the method must a valid CSS selector string. If it isn't, a SyntaxError exception is thrown.

# Select elements using an array of IDs

If you have an array of IDs and need to get a collection of the elements with these IDs, use this approach instead.

index.js

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const ids = ['box1', 'box2', 'box3'];

const boxes = document.querySelectorAll(
  ids.map(id => `#${id}`).join(', ')
);

// 👇️ [div#box1, div#box2, div#box3]
console.log(boxes);

The function we passed to the Array.map() method gets called with each ID in the array.

The map() method returns a new array containing the values returned from the callback function.

The last step is to join the array of IDs into a string with a comma separator.

# Iterating over the NodeList

If you need to iterate over the NodeList, use the NodeList.forEach method.

index.js

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const boxes = document.querySelectorAll('#box1, #box2, #box3');

// 👇️ [div#box1, div#box2, div#box3]
console.log(boxes);

boxes.forEach(box => {
  console.log(box);
});

The function we passed to the forEach method gets called for each element in the NodeList.

Note that you can't use all of the native array methods on the NodeList.

# Converting the NodeList to an array

If you need to perform more complex operations on the collection, use the Array.from method to convert it to an array.

index.js

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const boxes = Array.from(
  document.querySelectorAll('#box1, #box2, #box3')
);

// 👇️ [div#box1, div#box2, div#box3]
console.log(boxes);

// 👇️ true
console.log(Array.isArray(boxes));

The Array.from method takes an array-like object and converts it to an array.

You can also use the spread syntax (...) to convert the NodeList to an array.

index.js

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const boxes = [...document.querySelectorAll('#box1, #box2, #box3')];

// 👇️ [div#box1, div#box2, div#box3]
console.log(boxes);

// 👇️ true
console.log(Array.isArray(boxes));

The spread syntax (...) unpacks the elements of the NodeList into an array which enables us to use any array methods on the collection.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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Select elements by Multiple IDs using JavaScript