setting a whole style string to an element from javascript (not individual style parameters)

Question

I need to set an arbitrary style to a span via javascript.

I know I can do things like: span.style.height="250px"; But I need to be able to insert a random full style definition from a template

for example

float:left;  text-decoration:underline;  cursor:pointer;  color:blue; 

Is there a way to do that in Javascript? Something like:

element.style="all style definition here";

Answer 1

How about the .style.cssText property? Here's Microsoft's explanation.

Throw it the styles you'd like to apply like so:

document.getElementById('myEl').style.cssText = 'float:left;margin-top:75px;'; 

As for browser support, although it was IE-proprietary I believe it's well-supported (works in the IEs, FF3, and Safari 3.2 WIN at least).

Answer 2

If you want it to be lightweight, create a function such as:

function setStyles(element, styles) {     for(var s in styles) {         element.style[s] = styles[s];     } } 

Then you would pass the styles in as an object literal:

setStyles(element, {float: "left",                     textDecoration: "underline",                     cursor: "pointer",                     color: "blue"}); 

Note that the style references passed in have to follow the naming from a JavaScript standpoint, since the function simply changes the styles by accessing the element's style object through JavaScript.

If you must take your style input from a string then you could quite easily parse it and create the object literal.