Question

I’m looking to define a variable:

var alumniName = // id from a list ( example: <li id="JoeJohnson">Joe Johnson</li> ).

I want the variable to match what a visitor clicks on.
(example:

<li id="JoeJohnson">Joe Johnson</li>  
// when a visitor clicks on the name Joe Johnson... the variable = JoeJohnson

<li id="FredSmith">Fred Smith</li>
// when a visitor clicks on the name Fred Smith... the variable = FredSmith

etc… )

Any help is much appreciated -Thanks-

Answer 1

Try this
HTML:

<ul>
<li data-name='Joe Johnson'>Joe Johnson</li>
<li data-name='Fred Smith'>Fred Smith</li>
</ul>

JavaScript (to be called on body load):

var alumniName = '';
var liElems = document.getElementsByTagName('li');

for (var i=0; i<liElems.length; i++)
{
    liElems[i].onclick = function(){  
        alumniName = this.getAttribute('data-name');
        alert(alumniName);
    };

}