Recursive function to find a node in the DOM

From	"danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.javascript
Subject	Recursive function to find a node in the DOM
Date	2015-07-15 09:59 +0200
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<mo53os$am9$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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I wrote this small recursive function to find a node (having a name) in 
a DOM element:

//usage: nodeFind (element to inspect (object), f.e. a form, name of the 
element to search for, 3rd parameter empty at first call)

function nodeFind(el,n,retval){
  if (el.name==n) {
  	return (el)
  }else{
  	if (el.hasChildNodes) {
		for (var z=0;z<el.childNodes.length;++z){
			var a=el.childNodes.item(z);
			retval=nodeFind(a,n,retval)
		}
	 }
  }
  return retval
//^^^^^^^^^^^^ note!
}

I needed to find a specific control in a form, in order to substitute an 
<input readonly> with a <file> (via replaceChild()) to upload a file if 
the form is prevalidated, etc.
(then IIRC I discovered that IE was not able to refer to the substitued 
control via <form>[name] - this is another story :-) )

I put it in public domain if ever some newbies finds it useful, and 
obviously to discuss with "big chops" here if this is robust enough to 
be considered cross-browser and definitive.

I am using it from long time and it seems to work well on every browser.
One strange thing is the way recursion is implemented in javascript: I 
did not put the "return retval" statement at first, it seems unuseful, 
and went crazy before discovering that it is needed.

Dan
-- 
"Everybody should pay taxes with a smile"
I tried, but they want money.

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Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-07-15 09:59 +0200
  Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-15 11:59 +0200
    Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-15 12:03 +0200
    Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-07-15 13:36 +0200
      Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-19 12:27 +0200
        Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-19 12:34 +0200
        Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-07-21 12:08 +0200
          Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-25 14:11 +0200
            Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-07-25 21:22 +0200
              Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-27 16:12 +0200
    Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "Christoph M. Becker" <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2015-08-08 04:50 +0200
      Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-08-08 09:33 +0200
        Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "Christoph M. Becker" <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2015-08-12 00:48 +0200
          Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-08-12 01:18 +0200
            Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "Christoph M. Becker" <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2015-08-13 23:26 +0200
              Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-08-16 08:48 +0200
                Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "Christoph M. Becker" <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2015-08-20 02:11 +0200
  Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2015-07-18 15:59 -0700
    Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-07-21 12:30 +0200
      Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-21 13:53 +0200
        Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-07-21 14:51 +0200
          Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-07-21 16:05 +0200
            Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-07-21 20:35 +0200
            Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2015-07-30 22:10 -0700
              Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-08-06 10:07 +0200
                Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2015-08-06 20:15 +0200
                Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-08-08 01:21 +0200
        Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2015-07-30 22:09 -0700
  Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2015-07-29 03:04 +0000
    Re: Recursive function to find a node in the DOM "danca (Daniele Campagna)" <cyberdanny@tiscalinet.it> - 2015-08-06 10:20 +0200

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