Create an alias to document getelementbyid in JavaScript

Thursday, March 24, 2011 EDT

by: Eric Potvin

document.getElementById is pretty useful when developing Web 2.0 websites. But, writing over and over "document.getElementById" can be annoying. There is a simple way to fix that problem.

Creating an alias is a good way to simplify your code.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
this.$ = function(elem) {
    if(typeof(elem) != "string") {
        return false;
    }
    if(!document.getElementById(elem)) {
        return false;
    }
    return document.getElementById(elem);
}
</script>

$('info');

document.getElementById('info');

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