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Native DOM Alternatives to jQuery Selectors

Modern JavaScript can select elements with getElementById or querySelector. These methods work without jQuery.

In this page:

  1. Select by ID
  2. Select by Class
  3. querySelector and querySelectorAll
  4. Selector Comparison
  5. Small Selector Project
Syntax
javascript 
document.querySelector(selector);
document.querySelectorAll(selector);

Select by ID

document.getElementById() and document.querySelector() are the native browser equivalents of a jQuery ID or CSS selector, and they work without needing jQuery loaded at all. querySelector in particular accepts the same CSS selector syntax jQuery's $() does, making it a close drop-in replacement for simple lookups.

Example: Select by ID

javascript 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
  <style>
    button { padding:6px 14px; margin:4px; background:#2c6aa0; color:white; border:none; border-radius:4px; cursor:pointer; }
    #resetBtn { background:white; color:#2c6aa0; border:1px solid #2c6aa0; }
    #output { margin-top:10px; padding:8px; border:1px solid #ccc; border-radius:4px; background:#f7f7f7; font-family:monospace; min-height:24px; }
    #demo :where(p, div, span, li, h1, h2, h3, h4, td, th, blockquote, label, section, article, aside) { border:1px solid #4a7fb5; background:#eaf2fb; padding:6px 10px; margin:4px 0; border-radius:4px; }
    #demo :where(ul, ol) { border:1px dashed #888; background:#fafafa; padding:8px 8px 8px 32px; margin:6px 0; }
    #demo :where(table) { border-collapse:collapse; }
    #demo :where(td, th) { border-radius:0; }
    #demo :where(input, select, textarea) { margin:4px 0; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <button id="runBtn">Run</button>
  <button id="resetBtn">Reset</button>
  <section id="demo">
    <p id="text">Text</p>

  </section>
  <div id="output"></div>
  <script>
    var original = $("#demo").html();

    $("#runBtn").click(function() {
      $("#output").empty();
      $("#output").append($("<div>").text($("#text").text()));
      $("#output").append($("<div>").text(String(document.getElementById("text").textContent)));
    });

    $("#resetBtn").click(function() {
      $("#demo").html(original);
      $("#output").empty();
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>

Select by Class

jQuery selects elements by class using the same $() function with a CSS class selector, like $('.item'). Vanilla JavaScript can achieve the same result with document.querySelector() for the first match, or querySelectorAll() to get every matching element.

Example: Select by Class

javascript 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
  <style>
    button { padding:6px 14px; margin:4px; background:#2c6aa0; color:white; border:none; border-radius:4px; cursor:pointer; }
    #resetBtn { background:white; color:#2c6aa0; border:1px solid #2c6aa0; }
    #output { margin-top:10px; padding:8px; border:1px solid #ccc; border-radius:4px; background:#f7f7f7; font-family:monospace; min-height:24px; }
    #demo :where(p, div, span, li, h1, h2, h3, h4, td, th, blockquote, label, section, article, aside) { border:1px solid #4a7fb5; background:#eaf2fb; padding:6px 10px; margin:4px 0; border-radius:4px; }
    #demo :where(ul, ol) { border:1px dashed #888; background:#fafafa; padding:8px 8px 8px 32px; margin:6px 0; }
    #demo :where(table) { border-collapse:collapse; }
    #demo :where(td, th) { border-radius:0; }
    #demo :where(input, select, textarea) { margin:4px 0; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <button id="runBtn">Run</button>
  <button id="resetBtn">Reset</button>
  <section id="demo">
    <p class="item">One</p>

  </section>
  <div id="output"></div>
  <script>
    var original = $("#demo").html();

    $("#runBtn").click(function() {
      $("#output").empty();
      $("#output").append($("<div>").text($(".item").length));
      $("#output").append($("<div>").text(document.querySelectorAll(".item").length));
    });

    $("#resetBtn").click(function() {
      $("#demo").html(original);
      $("#output").empty();
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>

querySelector and querySelectorAll

querySelector() returns only the first element that matches a given CSS selector, while querySelectorAll() returns every matching element as a NodeList. Both accept the same CSS selector syntax jQuery uses internally, which is why they feel so familiar to anyone coming from jQuery.

Example: querySelector and querySelectorAll

javascript 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
  <style>
    button { padding:6px 14px; margin:4px; background:#2c6aa0; color:white; border:none; border-radius:4px; cursor:pointer; }
    #resetBtn { background:white; color:#2c6aa0; border:1px solid #2c6aa0; }
    #output { margin-top:10px; padding:8px; border:1px solid #ccc; border-radius:4px; background:#f7f7f7; font-family:monospace; min-height:24px; }
    #demo :where(p, div, span, li, h1, h2, h3, h4, td, th, blockquote, label, section, article, aside) { border:1px solid #4a7fb5; background:#eaf2fb; padding:6px 10px; margin:4px 0; border-radius:4px; }
    #demo :where(ul, ol) { border:1px dashed #888; background:#fafafa; padding:8px 8px 8px 32px; margin:6px 0; }
    #demo :where(table) { border-collapse:collapse; }
    #demo :where(td, th) { border-radius:0; }
    #demo :where(input, select, textarea) { margin:4px 0; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <button id="runBtn">Run</button>
  <button id="resetBtn">Reset</button>
  <section id="demo">
    <p class="item">One</p><p class="item">Two</p>

  </section>
  <div id="output"></div>
  <script>
    var original = $("#demo").html();

    $("#runBtn").click(function() {
      $("#output").empty();
      $("#output").append($("<div>").text(String(document.querySelector(".item").textContent)));
      $("#output").append($("<div>").text(document.querySelectorAll(".item").length));
    });

    $("#resetBtn").click(function() {
      $("#demo").html(original);
      $("#output").empty();
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>

Selector Comparison

jQuery selectors are concise and jQuery objects come with a large set of convenient built-in methods attached automatically. Native selectors remove the need to load the jQuery library at all when a project only needs basic DOM selection and doesn't rely on jQuery's other conveniences.

Example: Selector Comparison

javascript 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
  <style>
    button { padding:6px 14px; margin:4px; background:#2c6aa0; color:white; border:none; border-radius:4px; cursor:pointer; }
    #resetBtn { background:white; color:#2c6aa0; border:1px solid #2c6aa0; }
    #output { margin-top:10px; padding:8px; border:1px solid #ccc; border-radius:4px; background:#f7f7f7; font-family:monospace; min-height:24px; }
    #demo :where(p, div, span, li, h1, h2, h3, h4, td, th, blockquote, label, section, article, aside) { border:1px solid #4a7fb5; background:#eaf2fb; padding:6px 10px; margin:4px 0; border-radius:4px; }
    #demo :where(ul, ol) { border:1px dashed #888; background:#fafafa; padding:8px 8px 8px 32px; margin:6px 0; }
    #demo :where(table) { border-collapse:collapse; }
    #demo :where(td, th) { border-radius:0; }
    #demo :where(input, select, textarea) { margin:4px 0; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <button id="runBtn">Run</button>
  <button id="resetBtn">Reset</button>
  <section id="demo">
    <p class="item">Text</p>

  </section>
  <div id="output"></div>
  <script>
    var original = $("#demo").html();

    $("#runBtn").click(function() {
      $("#output").empty();
      $(".item").css("color", "red");
      document.querySelectorAll(".item").forEach(function(el) { el.style.color = "red"; });
    });

    $("#resetBtn").click(function() {
      $("#demo").html(original);
      $("#output").empty();
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>

Small Selector Project

Choosing between the two often comes down to what the rest of the project already uses: native selectors are built directly into every modern browser with no extra dependency, while jQuery offers a more compact, batteries-included API on top of them.

Example: Small Selector Project

javascript 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
  <style>
    button { padding:6px 14px; margin:4px; background:#2c6aa0; color:white; border:none; border-radius:4px; cursor:pointer; }
    #resetBtn { background:white; color:#2c6aa0; border:1px solid #2c6aa0; }
    #output { margin-top:10px; padding:8px; border:1px solid #ccc; border-radius:4px; background:#f7f7f7; font-family:monospace; min-height:24px; }
    #demo :where(p, div, span, li, h1, h2, h3, h4, td, th, blockquote, label, section, article, aside) { border:1px solid #4a7fb5; background:#eaf2fb; padding:6px 10px; margin:4px 0; border-radius:4px; }
    #demo :where(ul, ol) { border:1px dashed #888; background:#fafafa; padding:8px 8px 8px 32px; margin:6px 0; }
    #demo :where(table) { border-collapse:collapse; }
    #demo :where(td, th) { border-radius:0; }
    #demo :where(input, select, textarea) { margin:4px 0; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <button id="runBtn">Run</button>
  <button id="resetBtn">Reset</button>
  <section id="demo">
    <p id="text">Text</p>

  </section>
  <div id="output"></div>
  <script>
    var original = $("#demo").html();

    $("#runBtn").click(function() {
      $("#output").text(String($("#text").text() === document.getElementById("text").textContent));
    });

    $("#resetBtn").click(function() {
      $("#demo").html(original);
      $("#output").empty();
    });
  </script>
</body>
</html>
Related Topics

Vanilla JS Alternatives to jQuery DOM · Storing Metadata on DOM Nodes · Introduction to DOM Traversing · Cloning DOM Elements

{# common_mistakes/chapter_summary/browser_support: on Hindi pages the view already swaps in the hi_ translation fields (or blanks these out if untranslated), so this renders correctly for both languages without a lang_code check here. #}
Common Mistakes
  1. Using document.querySelector(".item") and expecting all matches like $(".item"), when it returns only the first; use querySelectorAll.
  2. Treating a querySelectorAll() result like a jQuery object and calling .hide() on it, when it is a NodeList that needs a loop.
  3. Writing document.getElementById("#text") with a #, when getElementById takes just the id: "text".
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