how to append a css class to an element by javascript?

Question

Suppose a HTML element's id is known, so the element can be refereced using:

document.getElementById(element_id);

Does a native Javascript function exist that can be used to append a CSS class to that element?

Answer 1

var element = document.getElementById(element_id);
element.className += " " + newClassName;

Voilà. This will work on pretty much every browser ever. The leading space is important, because the className property treats the css classes like a single string, which ought to match the class attribute on HTML elements (where multiple classes must be separated by spaces).

Incidentally, you're going to be better off using a Javascript library like prototype or jQuery, which have methods to do this, as well as functions that can first check if an element already has a class assigned.

In prototype, for instance:

// Prototype automatically checks that the element doesn't already have the class
$(element_id).addClassName(newClassName);

See how much nicer that is?!

Answer 2

Adding class using element's classList property:

element.classList.add('my-class-name');

Removing:

element.classList.remove('my-class-name');

Answer 3

classList is a convenient alternative to accessing an element's list of classes.. see http://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element.classList.

Not supported in IE < 10

Answer 4

When an element already has a class name defined, its influence on the element is tied to its position in the string of class names. Later classes override earlier ones, if there is a conflict.

Adding a class to an element ought to move the class name to the sharp end of the list, if it exists already.

document.addClass= function(el, css){
    var tem, C= el.className.split(/\s+/), A=[];    
    while(C.length){
        tem= C.shift();
        if(tem && tem!= css) A[A.length]= tem;
    }
    A[A.length]= css;
    return el.className= A.join(' ');   
}

Answer 5

You should be able to set the className property of the element. You could do a += to append it.