get value in an element dynamically using DOM in javascript

Dear all, my issue is this. I have like the alert box to display all the text I have in a element. May I know how I can do it?

My ori idea:

<a onclick="displayt开发者_开发问答ext(something)">testing</a>

function displaytext(something){
  alert(something);
}

Can someone please help me to solve this? Thanks.

---

Use innerHTML (or innerText if you don't want the HTML) and this:

<script>
function displaytext(something) {
    alert(something.innerHTML); //alerts 'testing'
    return false;
}
</script>

<a onclick="displaytext(this)">testing</a>

---

Use the innerHTML attribute, after you've gotten the object using getelementbyid or similar.

---

If you are just wanting to display the text you should use innerText

Live example

HTML

<a onclick="displaytext(this)">testing</a><br />
<a onclick="displayOtherText()">I'll display the div innerText</a><br />
<a onclick="displayOtherHtml()">I'll display the div innerHTML</a><br /><br />
<div id="textToDisplay"><span>Some sample</span> text here</div>

JavaScript

<script>
    function displaytext(element){
      alert(element.innerText);
    }
    function displayOtherText(){
        alert(document.getElementById('textToDisplay').innerText)
    }
    function displayOtherHtml(){
        alert(document.getElementById('textToDisplay').innerHTML)
    }
</script>

---

you should use a simple function like this. but be careful this function takes an element id so this will not work for a class name or a element name.

function sayText(elId) {
    var html = document.getElementById(elId).innerHTML;
    if (html != null) alert(html)
}