Can multiple different HTML elements have the same ID if they're different elements?

Question

Can multiple HTML elements have the same ID if they\'re of different element types? Is a scenario like this valid? Eg:

div#foo
span#foo
a#foo

Answer 1

The official spec for HTML states that id tags must be unique AND the official spec also states that if the render can be completed, it must (i.e. there are no such thing as "errors" in HTML, only "invalid" HTML). So, the following is how id tags actually work in practice. They are all invalid, but still work:

This:

One
Two

Renders fine in all browsers. However, document.getElementById only returns an object, not an array; you will only ever be able to select the first div via an id tag. If you were to change the id of the first div using JavaScript, the second ID would then be accessible with document.getElementById (tested on Chrome, FireFox & IE11). You can still select the div using other selection methods, and it's id property will be returned correctly.

Please note this above issue opens a potential security vulnerability in sites that render SVG images, as SVGs are allowed to contain DOM elements, and also id tags on them (allows script DOM redirects via uploaded images). As long as the SVG is positioned in the DOM before the element it replaces, the image will receive all JavaScript events meant for the other element.

This issue is currently not on anyone's radar as far as I know, yet it's real.

This:

One

Also renders fine in all browsers. However, only the first id you define this way is utilized, if you tried document.getElementById('unique-also'); in the above example, you would be returned null (tested on Chrome, FireFox & IE11).

This:

Two

Also renders fine in all browsers, however, unlike class tags that can be separated by a space, the id tag allows spaces, so the id of the above element is actually "unique unique-two", and asking the dom for "unique" or "unique-two" in isolation returns null unless otherwise defined elsewhere in the DOM (tested on Chrome, FireFox & IE11).