How to add/remove a class in JavaScript?

Question

Since element.classList is not supported in IE 9 and Safari-5, what's an alternative cross-browser solution?

No-frameworks please.

Solution must work in at least IE 9 , Safari 5 , FireFox 4, Opera 11.5, and Chrome.

Related posts (but does not contain solution):

1. how to add and remove css class

2. Add and remove a class with animation

3. Add remove class?

Answer 1

Here is solution for addClass, removeClass, hasClass in pure javascript solution.

Actually it's from http://jaketrent.com/post/addremove-classes-raw-javascript/

function hasClass(ele,cls) {
  return !!ele.className.match(new RegExp('(\\s|^)'+cls+'(\\s|$)'));
}

function addClass(ele,cls) {
  if (!hasClass(ele,cls)) ele.className += " "+cls;
}

function removeClass(ele,cls) {
  if (hasClass(ele,cls)) {
    var reg = new RegExp('(\\s|^)'+cls+'(\\s|$)');
    ele.className=ele.className.replace(reg,' ');
  }
}

Answer 2

Look at these oneliners:

1. Remove class:

    element.classList.remove('hidden');

2. Toggle class (adds the class if it's not already present and removes it if it is)

    element.classList.toggle('hidden');

That's all. I made a test - 10000 iterations. 0.8s.

Answer 3

I just wrote these up:

function addClass(el, classNameToAdd){
    el.className += ' ' + classNameToAdd;   
}

function removeClass(el, classNameToRemove){
    var elClass = ' ' + el.className + ' ';
    while(elClass.indexOf(' ' + classNameToRemove + ' ') !== -1){
         elClass = elClass.replace(' ' + classNameToRemove + ' ', '');
    }
    el.className = elClass;
}

I think they'll work in all browsers.

Answer 4

The simplest is element.classList which has remove(name) , add(name) , toggle(name) , and contains(name) methods and is now supported by all major browsers .

For older browsers you change element.className . Here are two helper:

function addClass(element, className){
    element.className += ' ' + className;   
}

function removeClass(element, className) {
    element.className = element.className.replace(
        new RegExp('( |^)' + className + '( |$)', 'g'), ' ').trim();
}

Answer 5

One way to play around with classes without frameworks/libraries would be using the property Element.className, which " gets and sets the value of the class attribute of the specified element. " (from the MDN documentation ).
As @matías-fidemraizer already mentioned in his answer, once you get the string of classes for your element you can use any methods associated with strings to modify it.

Here's an example:
Assuming you have a div with the ID "myDiv" and that you want to add to it the class "main__section" when the user clicks on it,

window.onload = init;

function init() {
  document.getElementById("myDiv").onclick = addMyClass;
}

function addMyClass() {
  var classString = this.className; // returns the string of all the classes for myDiv
  var newClass = classString.concat(" main__section"); // Adds the class "main__section" to the string (notice the leading space)
  this.className = newClass; // sets className to the new string
}

Answer 6

Read this Mozilla Developer Network article:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/element.className

Since element.className property is of type string, you can use regular String object functions found in any JavaScript implementation:

• If you want to add a class, first use String.indexOf in order to check if class is present in className . If it's not present, just concatenate a blank character and the new class name to this property. If it's present, do nothing.

• If you want to remove a class, just use String.replace , replacing "[className]" with an empty string. Finally use String.trim to remove blank characters at the start and end of element.className .

Answer 7

Fixed the solution from @Paulpro

1. Do not use "class", as it is a reserved word
2. removeClass function was broken, as it bugged out after repeated use.

`

function addClass(el, newClassName){
    el.className += ' ' + newClassName;   
}

function removeClass(el, removeClassName){
    var elClass = el.className;
    while(elClass.indexOf(removeClassName) != -1) {
        elClass = elClass.replace(removeClassName, '');
        elClass = elClass.trim();
    }
    el.className = elClass;
}

Answer 8

The solution is to

Shim .classList :

Either use the DOM-shim or use Eli Grey's shim below

Disclaimer: I believe the support is FF3.6+, Opera10+, FF5, Chrome, IE8+

/*
 * classList.js: Cross-browser full element.classList implementation.
 * 2011-06-15
 *
 * By Eli Grey, http://eligrey.com
 * Public Domain.
 * NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
 */

/*global self, document, DOMException */

/*! @source http://purl.eligrey.com/github/classList.js/blob/master/classList.js*/

if (typeof document !== "undefined" && !("classList" in document.createElement("a"))) {

(function (view) {

"use strict";

var
      classListProp = "classList"
    , protoProp = "prototype"
    , elemCtrProto = (view.HTMLElement || view.Element)[protoProp]
    , objCtr = Object
    , strTrim = String[protoProp].trim || function () {
        return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
    }
    , arrIndexOf = Array[protoProp].indexOf || function (item) {
        var
              i = 0
            , len = this.length
        ;
        for (; i < len; i++) {
            if (i in this && this[i] === item) {
                return i;
            }
        }
        return -1;
    }
    // Vendors: please allow content code to instantiate DOMExceptions
    , DOMEx = function (type, message) {
        this.name = type;
        this.code = DOMException[type];
        this.message = message;
    }
    , checkTokenAndGetIndex = function (classList, token) {
        if (token === "") {
            throw new DOMEx(
                  "SYNTAX_ERR"
                , "An invalid or illegal string was specified"
            );
        }
        if (/\s/.test(token)) {
            throw new DOMEx(
                  "INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR"
                , "String contains an invalid character"
            );
        }
        return arrIndexOf.call(classList, token);
    }
    , ClassList = function (elem) {
        var
              trimmedClasses = strTrim.call(elem.className)
            , classes = trimmedClasses ? trimmedClasses.split(/\s+/) : []
            , i = 0
            , len = classes.length
        ;
        for (; i < len; i++) {
            this.push(classes[i]);
        }
        this._updateClassName = function () {
            elem.className = this.toString();
        };
    }
    , classListProto = ClassList[protoProp] = []
    , classListGetter = function () {
        return new ClassList(this);
    }
;
// Most DOMException implementations don't allow calling DOMException's toString()
// on non-DOMExceptions. Error's toString() is sufficient here.
DOMEx[protoProp] = Error[protoProp];
classListProto.item = function (i) {
    return this[i] || null;
};
classListProto.contains = function (token) {
    token += "";
    return checkTokenAndGetIndex(this, token) !== -1;
};
classListProto.add = function (token) {
    token += "";
    if (checkTokenAndGetIndex(this, token) === -1) {
        this.push(token);
        this._updateClassName();
    }
};
classListProto.remove = function (token) {
    token += "";
    var index = checkTokenAndGetIndex(this, token);
    if (index !== -1) {
        this.splice(index, 1);
        this._updateClassName();
    }
};
classListProto.toggle = function (token) {
    token += "";
    if (checkTokenAndGetIndex(this, token) === -1) {
        this.add(token);
    } else {
        this.remove(token);
    }
};
classListProto.toString = function () {
    return this.join(" ");
};

if (objCtr.defineProperty) {
    var classListPropDesc = {
          get: classListGetter
        , enumerable: true
        , configurable: true
    };
    try {
        objCtr.defineProperty(elemCtrProto, classListProp, classListPropDesc);
    } catch (ex) { // IE 8 doesn't support enumerable:true
        if (ex.number === -0x7FF5EC54) {
            classListPropDesc.enumerable = false;
            objCtr.defineProperty(elemCtrProto, classListProp, classListPropDesc);
        }
    }
} else if (objCtr[protoProp].__defineGetter__) {
    elemCtrProto.__defineGetter__(classListProp, classListGetter);
}

}(self));

}

Answer 9

Improved version of emil's code (with trim())

function hasClass(ele,cls) {
  return !!ele.className.match(new RegExp('(\\s|^)'+cls+'(\\s|$)'));
}

function addClass(ele,cls) {
  if (!hasClass(ele,cls)) ele.className = ele.className.trim() + " " + cls;
}

function removeClass(ele,cls) {
  if (hasClass(ele,cls)) {
    var reg = new RegExp('(\\s|^)'+cls+'(\\s|$)');
    ele.className = ele.className.replace(reg,' ');
    ele.className = ele.className.trim();
  }
}

Answer 10

function addClass(element, classString) {
    element.className = element
        .className
        .split(' ')
        .filter(function (name) { return name !== classString; })
        .concat(classString)
        .join(' ');
}

function removeClass(element, classString) {
    element.className = element
        .className
        .split(' ')
        .filter(function (name) { return name !== classString; })
        .join(' ');
}

Answer 11

Just in case if anyone would like to have prototype functions built for elements, this is what I use when I need to manipulate classes of different objects:

Element.prototype.addClass = function (classToAdd) {
  var classes = this.className.split(' ')
  if (classes.indexOf(classToAdd) === -1) classes.push(classToAdd)
  this.className = classes.join(' ')
}

Element.prototype.removeClass = function (classToRemove) {
  var classes = this.className.split(' ')
  var idx =classes.indexOf(classToRemove)
  if (idx !== -1) classes.splice(idx,1)
  this.className = classes.join(' ')
}

Use them like: document.body.addClass('whatever') or document.body.removeClass('whatever')

Instead of body you can also use any other element (div, span, you name it)

Answer 12

A easy to understand way:

// Add class 
DOMElement.className += " one";
// Example:
// var el = document.body;
// el.className += " two"

// Remove class 
function removeDOMClass(element, className) {
    var oldClasses      = element.className,
        oldClassesArray = oldClasses.split(" "),
        newClassesArray = [],
        newClasses;

    // Sort
    var currentClassChecked,
        i;     
    for ( i = 0; i < oldClassesArray.length; i++ ) { 
        // Specified class will not be added in the new array
        currentClassChecked = oldClassesArray[i];
        if( currentClassChecked !== className ) { 
            newClassesArray.push(currentClassChecked);
        }
    }

    // Order 
    newClasses = newClassesArray.join(" ");

    // Apply     
    element.className = newClasses;

    return element;

}
// Example:
// var el = document.body;
// removeDOMClass(el, "two")

https://gist.github.com/sorcamarian/ff8db48c4dbf4f5000982072611955a2

Answer 13

add css classes: cssClassesStr += cssClassName;

remove css classes: cssClassStr = cssClassStr.replace(cssClassName,"");

add attribute 'Classes': object.setAttribute("class", ""); //pure addition of this attribute object.setAttribute("class", ""); //pure addition of this attribute

remove attribute: object.removeAttribute("class");