Element.tagName

The tagName read-only property of the Element interface returns the tag name of the element on which it's called. For example, if the element is an <img>, its tagName property is "IMG" (for HTML documents; it may be cased differently for XML/XHTML documents).

Syntax

elementName = Element.tagName;

Value

A string indicating the element's tag name. This string's capitalization depends on the document type:

  • For DOM trees which represent HTML documents, the returned tag name is always in the canonical upper-case form. For example, tagName called on a <div> element returns "DIV".
  • The tag names of elements in an XML DOM tree are returned in the same case in which they're written in the original XML file. If an XML document includes a tag "<SomeTag>", then the tagName property's value is "SomeTag".

For Element objects, the value of tagName is the same as the value of the nodeName property the element object inherits from Node.

Example

HTML

<span id="born">When I was born...</span>

JavaScript

var span = document.getElementById("born");
console.log(span.tagName);

In XHTML (or any other XML format), the original case will be maintained, so "span" would be output in case the original tag name was created lowercase. In HTML, "SPAN" would be output instead regardless of the case used while creating the original document.

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
DOM
The definition of 'Element: tagName' in that specification.
Living Standard

Browser compatibility

DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
tagNameChrome Full support 43Edge Full support 12Firefox Full support 1IE Full support 8Opera Full support 8Safari Full support 6WebView Android Full support 43Chrome Android Full support 43Firefox Android Full support 4Opera Android Full support 10.1Safari iOS Full support 6Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0

Legend

Full support
Full support