GetElementText

GetElementText is a function name used in various programming libraries to obtain the textual content of a specified element within a document object model (DOM), XML, or HTML. While implementations differ, the goal is generally to return the concatenated text contained in the element and its descendants as a single string.

In web browsers, the standard mechanisms for accessing text are properties such as textContent or innerText, rather than a universal getElementText function. Some libraries provide a helper called getElementText to simplify this task, often abstracting away the choice between retrieving all text nodes (textContent) and text that is visible to the user (innerText).

Common variations exist among implementations. Some getElementText functions return all text including whitespace and text inside script or style elements, while others offer options to trim whitespace, normalize spaces, or exclude text from certain descendants. In XML processing libraries with a tree model, text extraction can differ; for example, in Python’s lxml, text and tail hold different parts of text, and collecting all text may require iterating over text nodes or using a dedicated helper.

Return values are typically strings; some libraries may return an empty string when there is no text or raise an error if the element reference is invalid. Developers should consult the specific library’s documentation to understand exact behavior, whitespace handling, and edge cases.

See also: innerText, textContent, and text extraction utilities across libraries.