CLASS Attribute | className Property

Internet Development Index

Sets or retrieves the class of the object.

Syntax

HTML<ELEMENT CLASS = sClass... >
Scriptingobject.className [ = sClass ]

Possible Values

sClassString that specifies or receives the class or style rule.

The property is read/write. The property has no default value.

Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

The class is typically used to associate a particular style rule in a style sheet with the element.

As of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5, you can apply multiple styles to an element by specifying more than one style for the CLASS attribute. To apply multiple styles to a single element, use the following syntax:

<ELEMENT CLASS = sClass [ sClass2 [ sClass3 ... ] ] ... >

When multiple styles are specified for an element, a conflict could develop if two or more styles define the same attribute differently. In this case, you can resolve the conflict by applying styles to the element in the following order, according to the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) selector used to define the style.

  1. Element
  2. CLASS
  3. ID
  4. Inline styles

When two or more selectors pertain to an element, a style defined later takes precedence over a style defined earlier. For more information, see Cascading Style Sheets in Internet Explorer 4.0.

Example

This example uses the className attribute to apply one or more styles to an HTML element.

<HEAD>
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
P {font-size: 24pt;}
.redText {color: red;}
.blueText {color: blue;}
.italicText {font-style: italic;}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>
Large text, no class specified, one implied.
</P>
<P CLASS="redText">
Large text, .redText class specified.
</P>
<P CLASS="blueText italicText">
Large text, .blueText and .italicText classes specified.
</P>
</BODY>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Standards Information

This property is defined in HTML 4.0 Non-Microsoft link and is defined in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Non-Microsoft link.

Applies To

A, ACRONYM, ADDRESS, APPLET, AREA, B, BDO, BIG, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, BR, BUTTON, CAPTION, CENTER, CITE, CODE, COL, COLGROUP, CUSTOM, DD, DEL, DFN, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, EM, EMBED, FIELDSET, FONT, FORM, FRAME, FRAMESET, HEAD, hn, HR, HTML, I, IFRAME, IMG, INPUT type=button, INPUT type=checkbox, INPUT type=file, INPUT type=hidden, INPUT type=image, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=radio, INPUT type=reset, INPUT type=submit, INPUT type=text, INS, ISINDEX, KBD, LABEL, LEGEND, LI, LISTING, MAP, MARQUEE, MENU, nextID, NOBR, OBJECT, OL, OPTION, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, Q, RT, RUBY, S, SAMP, SELECT, SMALL, SPAN, STRIKE, STRONG, SUB, SUP, TABLE, TBODY, TD, TEXTAREA, TFOOT, TH, THEAD, TR, TT, U, UL, VAR, XMP