recursive function always return null

[samuelberthelot]

Hi,

Here's the function:

function getParentElementByTagName(child, TagName){
var cn;
if (child.parentElement){
cn = child.parentElement;
if (child.parentElement.tagName == TagName){
return cn;
}else{
getParentElementByTagName(child.parentElement, TagName);
}
}
}

although it finds the element, the function returns null ( on the line
'return cn', cn is not null though). Is my algorithm wrong ?

thanks

 

[Martin Honnen]

function getParentElementByTagName(child, TagName){
var cn;
if (child.parentElement){

W3C DOM knows a property parentNode but not a property named
parentElement (which is IE DOM). IE 5 and later have parentNode too so
you probably want to use parentNode and not parentElement.
As for the problem, which browser does that occur with?

 

[samuelberthelot]

Hi,
I'm using IE 6 and Firefox. I've replaced parentElement with parentNode
but still returned undefined, although in the function I can see it
finds the right node
something must be wrong with the recursion.

 

[Martin Honnen]

I'm using IE 6 and Firefox. I've replaced parentElement with parentNode
but still returned undefined, although in the function I can see it
finds the right node
something must be wrong with the recursion.

You need to use return on the recursive call

getParentElementByTagName(child.parentElement, TagName);

return getParentElementByTagName(child.parentNode, TagName);

 

[samuelberthelot]

Of course ! I'm so stupid...

Thank you !