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I am currently learning javascript and I found some difficulties in understanding the difference between class and className.

I am wondering if there are any difference between class and className. As when I am learning Javascript, I found that I may use either of it to retrieve the class name of specific node: e.g. 

   var firstChildClass = firstChildName.className; 
   var firstChildClass2 = firstChildName.getAttribute('class')

A more detailed script can be found on http://jsfiddle.net/hphchan/3ze3ug7r/.

I would like to ask in implementation, are there any subtle differences between the two?

Btw I have been visited object.className or object.getAttribute("className/class")?, and understand that using getAttribute('class') is more universal than className since className works only on HTML, not others like SVG. But are any extra difference exist between the two?

Thanks.

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CHANist
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  • No other differences, just the problem of 'class' and 'className' in legacy browsers, and generality for markup other than HTML. – Peter Olson Jul 08 '15 at 08:25
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    They are not the same. One is a getter/setter and one directly grabs the value out from HTML. [They can return different values.](http://jsfiddle.net/DerekL/wgfkhdb8/) – Derek 朕會功夫 Jul 08 '15 at 08:27
  • You should also consider [classList](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/API/Element/classList) when talking about class retrieval differences. – dakab Jul 08 '15 at 08:59

1 Answers1

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As @Derek-朕會功夫 stated, the getAttribute is onlt used to retrieve the value of the class attribute while accessing directly the className attribute allows to get & set the class names.

Furhtermore, the getAttribute function works with any kind of attribute and could be use to easily retrieve values dynamically eg getAttribute(attributeName).

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