What is it called when I can select a HTML element in JS using it's ID?

Question

I've noticed that I can use a to reference an element with an ID of "a" but I'm not sure if there's a name for this "method".

For example this would set the div's text to "b c".

<div id="a" class="b c"></div>
<script>a.innerHTML = a.classList</script>

Not sure of the name, but here's some discussion about it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3434278/do-dom-tree-elements-with-ids-become-global-variables — Evan Trimboli, Oct 21 '16 at 10:42
[named access on the window object](http://stackoverflow.com/a/11691401/2643846) — aandis, Oct 21 '16 at 10:44
in jQuery selecting-element based on class/id etc is called Selectors. — Ankit Deshpande, Oct 21 '16 at 10:45

Max Koretskyi · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-21T11:15:25.080

2

It seems to be called Named access on the Window object by HTML5 standard. Read more here

The window object must have a property key whose value is elem if:

there is exactly one DOM element elem whose property id has the value key.

there is exactly one DOM element elem whose property name has the value key. elem’s tag must be one of: a, applet, area, embed, form, frame, frameset, iframe, img, object.

edited Oct 21 '16 at 11:15

answered Oct 21 '16 at 10:45

Max Koretskyi

101,079
60
333
488

What is it called when I can select a HTML element in JS using it's ID?

1 Answers1