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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script>
document.getElementById("passage").innerHTML = "Paragraph changed!";
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="passage">hello</div>
<div id="question"></div>
<div id="answers"></div>
</body>
</html>
Why is document.getElementById("passage").innerHTML = "Paragraph changed!" not working for me? I just end up with a blank screen, not even the original "hello".
770
Your script is called before the element is loaded, try calling the script after loading element
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div id="passage">hello</div>
<div id="question"></div>
<div id="answers"></div>
<script>
document.getElementById("passage").innerHTML = "Paragraph changed!";
</script>
</body>
</html>
If you check the console, you can see an error
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property 'innerHTML' of null
That is the HTML page is parsed and executed top down.
So, it can't identify what is the element you are mentioning.
So, you should either use an EventListener or place the script just before the end of body tag
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<script>
window.onload=function(){
document.getElementById("passage").innerHTML = "Paragraph changed!";
};
</script>
<body>
<div id = "passage">hello</div>
<div id = "question"></div>
<div id = "answers"></div>
</body>
</html><!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div id = "passage">hello</div>
<div id = "question"></div>
<div id = "answers"></div>
<script>
document.getElementById("passage").innerHTML = "Paragraph changed!";
</script>
</body>
</html>You script should be executed once the page is loaded.
Otherwise all elements of the page may not be still attached to the dom when you refer to them.
Rather than moving the script after the element declaration that may be error prone (you should always be aware of the order of script), you could use
event designed to be executed after the dom is totally loaded.
For example onload attribute of body :
<body onload='document.getElementById("passage").innerHTML = "Paragraph changed!";'>
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