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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T22:27:52+00:00

I have the following HTML: <html> <head><title>Title</title></head> <body> <div id=’div2′> <a href=’#’>1</a> <div id=’div1′>

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I have the following HTML:

<html>
  <head><title>Title</title></head>
  <body>
    <div id='div2'>
      <a href='#'>1</a>
      <div id='div1'>
        <a href='#'>2</a>
      </div> 
    </div>

  </body>
</html>

… and the following Javascript code, which I’m running through Greasemonkey:

var nodes = document.body.getElementsByTagName('a');
for (var i = 0; i < nodes.length; i++) {
  var node = nodes[i];
  node.parentNode.removeChild(node);    
}

I would expect it to find and remove all A tags; instead it finds the first, but not the second. As far as I can tell it’s having difficulty with the way the second A tag is nested.

Could someone please let me know how to remove all the tags, using getElementsByTagName? There are reasons I’d prefer not to use XPath if at all possible.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Capture the length and remove in reverse order. This will eliminate side effects.

    var nodes = document.body.getElementsByTagName('a');

for (var J=nodes.length-1;  J >= 0;  J--) //-- Kill the last, first, to avoid orphan problems.
{
    var node    = nodes[J];
    if (node)
    {
        node.parentNode.removeChild (node);
    }
}

    But a better way…
    Add this directive to your header:

    // @require http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js

    Then your whole code becomes:

    $("a").remove ();
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