Analog Point Solutions [Weblog]

There are many dollar sign functions out there, especially in the Javascript packages such as Prototype or MooFX. Peter-Paul Koch over at Quirksmode offers a cross-browser version of document.getElementById. Let’s combine all the goodness from each of these to make a souped-up $() dollar sign function that works in most browsers, and is not dependant on the DOM implementation of just one. It’s actually 2 functions, the $() and then a helper function.

function $() {
	var elements = new Array();
	for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
		var element = arguments[i];
		if (typeof element == 'string')
			element = getElementByIdCompat(element);
		if (arguments.length == 1)
			return element;
		elements.push(element);
	}
	return elements;
}
function getElementByIdCompat(name) {
	if (document.getElementById) {
		return document.getElementById(name);
	} else if (document.all) {
		return document.all[name];
	} else if (document.layers) {
		var theobj = {};
		theobj = document.layers[name];
		theobj.style = document.layers[name];
		return theobj;
	}
}