Javascript : get all the object where id is like log_XXXX

Hi , a js newbie here. I need to get all the objects whose id matches a specific pattern . How can I do it? Thanks!

From stackoverflow

• Easy with jQuery

  $("*[id\^='log\_']")
  

  --edit--

  Otherwise...

  var matches = [];
  var elems = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
  for (var i=0; i<elems.length; i++) {
    if (elems[i].id.indexOf("log_") == 0)
      matches.push(elems[i]);
  }
  //matches now is an array of all matching elements.
  

  Daniel Lew : And if you're not using jQuery? :P

  Tracker1 : @Daniel, see update above.

  Ben Blank : Your jQuery selector could be improved. The "star selector" is implicit, you should be using the "starts-with" selector instead of "contains", and the underscore doesn't need escaped: `$("[id^=log_]")`

  Tracker1 : @Ben, didn't remember the starts with vs. star.. :) thx.

• It would be best to use a JS framework to accomplish this because they have advanced DOM selector functions that make what you want to do incredibly easy. There are many to choose from but the more popular are jQuery, Prototype, MooTools, and Dojo.

• Ok, here's a straight JavaScript answer:

  // a handy function to aid in filtering:
  // takes an array and a function, returns another array containing
  // only those elements for which f() returns true
  function filter(a, f) 
  { 
    var ret = []; 
    for (var i=0; i<a.length; ++i) 
    {
      if ( f(a[i]) ) 
        ret.push(a[i]); 
    }
    return ret;
  }
  
  // this collects all elements in the current document
  var elements = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
  
  // and this filters out all but those that match our pattern
  var logElements = filter(elements, function(el) 
    { return /log_/.test(el.id) } ); // simple expression