JavaScript CSS how to add and remove multiple CSS classes to an element

Question

How can assign multiple css classes to an html element through javascript without using any libraries?

Answer 1

Here's a simpler method to add multiple classes via classList (supported by all modern browsers, as noted in other answers here):

div.classList.add('foo', 'bar'); // add multiple classes

From: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/classList#Examples

If you have an array of class names to add to an element, you can use the ES6 spread operator to pass them all into classList.add() via this one-liner:

let classesToAdd = [ 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' ];
div.classList.add(...classesToAdd);

Note that not all browsers support ES6 natively yet, so as with any other ES6 answer you'll probably want to use a transpiler like Babel, or just stick with ES5 and use a solution like @LayZee's above.

Answer 2

just use this

element.getAttributeNode("class").value += " antherClass";

take care about Space to avoid mix old class with new class

Answer 3

In modern browsers, the classList API is supported.

This allows for a (vanilla) JavaScript function like this:

var addClasses;

addClasses = function (selector, classArray) {
    'use strict';

    var className, element, elements, i, j, lengthI, lengthJ;

    elements = document.querySelectorAll(selector);

    // Loop through the elements
    for (i = 0, lengthI = elements.length; i < lengthI; i += 1) {
        element = elements[i];

        // Loop through the array of classes to add one class at a time
        for (j = 0, lengthJ = classArray.length; j < lengthJ; j += 1) {
            className = classArray[j];

            element.classList.add(className);
        }
    }
};

Modern browsers (not IE) support passing multiple arguments to the classList::add function, which would remove the need for the nested loop, simplifying the function a bit:

var addClasses;

addClasses = function (selector, classArray) {
    'use strict';

    var classList, className, element, elements, i, j, lengthI, lengthJ;

    elements = document.querySelectorAll(selector);

    // Loop through the elements
    for (i = 0, lengthI = elements.length; i < lengthI; i += 1) {
        element = elements[i];
        classList = element.classList;

        // Pass the array of classes as multiple arguments to classList::add
        classList.add.apply(classList, classArray);
    }
};

Usage

addClasses('.button', ['large', 'primary']);

Functional version

var addClassesToElement, addClassesToSelection;

addClassesToElement = function (element, classArray) {
    'use strict';

    classArray.forEach(function (className) {
       element.classList.add(className);
    });
};

addClassesToSelection = function (selector, classArray) {
    'use strict';

    // Use Array::forEach on NodeList to iterate over results.
    // Okay, since we’re not trying to modify the NodeList.
    Array.prototype.forEach.call(document.querySelectorAll(selector), function (element) {
        addClassesToElement(element, classArray)
    });
};

// Usage
addClassesToSelection('.button', ['button', 'button--primary', 'button--large'])

The classList::add function will prevent multiple instances of the same CSS class as opposed to some of the previous answers.

Resources on the classList API:

• Can I use
• MDN
• David Walsh
• HTML5 Doctor

Answer 4

Perhaps:

document.getElementById("myEle").className = "class1 class2";

Not tested, but should work.

Answer 5

var el = document.getElementsByClassName('myclass')

el[0].classList.add('newclass');

el[0].classList.remove('newclass');

To find whether the class exists or not, use:

el[0].classList.contains('newclass'); // this will return true or false 

Browser support IE8+

Answer 6

guaranteed to work on new browsers. the old className way may not, since it's deprecated.

<element class="oneclass" />

element.setAttribute('class', element.getAttribute('class') + ' another');
alert(element.getAttribute('class')); // oneclass another