What is the meaning `HTMLDivElement`?

Last Updated : 17 Jul, 2023

In this article, we will understand What is `HTMLDivElement.<anonymous>` and why we get this error.

The HTMLDivElement interface provides special properties for manipulating elements (in addition to the normal HTMLElement interface from which it inherits). It is used to manipulate the <div> element.

The HTMLDivElement.<anonymous> refers to an anonymous function assigned to an event listener for a div element in HTML (HTMLDivElement). The .<anonymous> notation is used to indicate that the function does not have a name. This type of notation is typically seen in JavaScript console logs or in debugging tools. The anonymous function is called when the event is listening for occurs.

Example 1: In this example, a ‘click’ event is attached to a ‘div’ element with the id “myDiv”. When the ‘div’ is clicked, the anonymous function tries to access the ‘children’ property of the ‘div’ element. However, if the ‘div’ element doesn’t have any children, the ‘children‘ property will be null, and trying to access a property of null will result in the “Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘children’ of null” error.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>Uncaught TypeError Example</title>
</head>
 
<body>
    <div id="myDiv">
        <button>
            Click me
        </button>
    </div>
    <script>
        let myDiv = document.getElementById("myDiv");
        myDiv.addEventListener("click", function () {
            let children = myDiv.children;
            console.log(children);
        });
    </script>
</body>
 
</html>

Output:

Example 2: To solve the error, the anonymous function passed as the second argument to ‘addEventListener‘ sets the ‘innerHTML’ of the result element to the specified string when the ‘div’ is clicked.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
 
<head>
    <style>
        #myDiv {
            padding: 10px;
            text-align: center;
        }
 
        h1 {
            color: red;
            text-align: center;
        }
 
        button {
            background-color: rgb(250, 175, 165);
            padding: 20px 40px;
            border-radius: 5px;
            border: none;
            font-size: large;
        }
 
        #result {
            padding: 10px;
            text-align: center;
        }
    </style>
</head>
 
<body>
    <h1>GeeksforGeeks !</h1>
    <div id="myDiv">
        <button>Click me</button>
    </div>
    <p id="result"></p>
 
    <script>
        let myDiv = document.getElementById("myDiv");
        let result = document.getElementById("result");
 
        myDiv.addEventListener("click", function () {
            result.innerHTML = 
            "Hello GeeksforGeeks , How can i help you ?";
        });
    </script>
</body>
 
</html>