Summary

Returns the name of the element.

Syntax

elementName = element.tagName

• elementName is a string containing the name of the current element.

Notes

In XML (and XML-based languages such as XHTML), tagName preserves case. On HTML elements in DOM trees flagged as HTML documents, tagName returns the element name in the uppercase form. The value of tagName is the same as that of nodeName.

Example

Given the following markup:

<span id="born">When I was born...</span>

and the following script

var span = document.getElementById("born");
alert(span.tagName);

In XHTML (or any other XML format), "span" would be alerted. In HTML, "SPAN" would be alerted instead.

Specifications

• DOM Level 2 Core: tagName
• HTML 5: APIs in HTML documents