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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T08:30:03+00:00

I’m trying to figure out how to select the textarea in the code below

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I’m trying to figure out how to select the textarea in the code below using xpath and JavaScript (which is the only option here). 

<body>
    <div id="calculator">
        <div id="calculatorController">
            <form action="#" method="get" onsubmit="return false">
                <p>
                    <textarea disabled="disabled"></textarea>
                </p>
            </form>
        ...

I’m trying to do something like this

var element = document.evaluate( '//body/form/p/textarea' ,document, null, XPathResult.ANY_TYPE, null );
// and write back
element.value = "Hello textarea";

But it fails

Anyone keen to help?

Thanks

Update below this

============================================================

The entire block of code looks like this.
Don’t forget the window.onload=function()

<html>
<head>
  <script type='text/javascript'> 
  //<![CDATA[ 
  window.onload=function(){
  var element = document.evaluate( '//body//form/p/textarea' ,document, null, XPathResult.FIRST_ORDERED_NODE_TYPE, null ).singleNodeValue;

        if (element != null) {
            element.value = 'Hello textarea';
        }

  }
  //]]> 
  </script> 
</head>
<body>
    <div id="calculator">
        <div id="calculatorController">
            <form action="#" method="get" onsubmit="return false">
                <p>
                    <textarea disabled="disabled"></textarea>
                </p>
            </form>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The evaluate method does not return a DOM node as you seem to expect. You would need

    var element = document.evaluate( '//body//form/p/textarea' ,document, null, XPathResult.FIRST_ORDERED_NODE_TYPE, null ).singleNodeValue;
if (element != null) {
  element.value = '...';
}
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