[Chapter 21] Reference: Anchor
Author: David Flanagan
Date: Fri Aug 29 11:13:49 1997

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| Chapter 21 JavaScript Reference |

# Anchor Object

## Name

Anchor Object---the target of a hypertext link

## Availability

Implemented but nonfunctional in Navigator 2.0, 3.0, and Internet Explorer 3.0

## Synopsis

    document.anchors.length
    document.anchors[i]

## HTML Syntax

An Anchor object is created by any standard HTML `<A>` tag that contains a `<NAME>` attribute:

    <A
      NAME="anchor_name"  links may refer to this anchor by this name
      [ HREF=URL ]    an anchor may also be a link
      [ TARGET="window_name" ]    links may refer to other windows
    >
    link text
    </A>

## Description

An "anchor" is a named location within an HTML document. Anchors are created with the `NAME` attribute of the `<A>` tag. The JavaScript Document object has an `anchors[]` array property that should contain references to each of the anchors in the document. Unfortunately, in Navigator 2.0 and 3.0 and in Internet Explorer 3.0, the elements of this array always contain `null`. The problem is that the Anchor object has not yet been implemented. A future version of the language should contain an actual working Anchor object, and the `anchors[]` array will be filled in with references to appropriate Anchor objects.

Note that the `<A>` tag used to create anchors is also used to create hypertext links. Although hypertext links are often called "anchors" in HTML parlance, they are represented in JavaScript with the Link object, not with the Anchor object.

## See Also

"Document.anchors[]", "Link"

alert() |  | Applet