Naming/Finding a group of tags

[jacobster]

I have a page with a dozen or so tables on it and I want to be able to manipulate subsets of those tables with a javascript (e.g. change the background color of tableSubSet1 to yellow). Is there any way to "name" them so that I can pull them into a script and alter their properties? I need to use this function across multiple pages, so I don't want to give individual IDs to every table. Any ideas?

P.S. If anyone can convince the W3C to add getElementsByClassName, it would make my life so much easier.

 

[elegidito]

You could always fake getElementsByClassName:

function getElementsByClassName(a) {mArr = new Array();d = document.getElementsByTagName('*');for (x=0;x<d.length;x++){if (d[x].className == a){mArr[mArr.length]=d[x];}}return mArr;};

then just call it:

getElementsByClassName("className");

it will return an array of the elements with the classname you specify.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle

 

[JontyMC]

The point of giving them class names is so you can use a stylesheet to alter the styling. Therefore why not change the stylesheet:

document.stylesheet[0].addRule("myclass", "background-color: blue;", 0)

 

[jacobster]

Thanks guys,
Jonty, I think that might be the simplest (should have thought of that myself). Elegidito, for future reference, how much time would that add to a page load. Cycling through every element seems fairly involved (but useful in the right situstions)..