getAttribute("value") versus .value method

[roughie]

I create markup on the fly via DOM scripting.

Included is an input field of id = "mytimer".

 

I fail to retrieve this field's value with the following code;

It comes up with a zero value:

var timer = document.getElementById("mytimer");

var tval = timer.getAttribute("value");

alert("Value of timer is now set to "+ tval);

 

Yet, were I to use:

alert("Value of timer is now set to "+ document.getElementById("mytimer").value);

I succeed.

 

Why this difference?

[fnairb]

That is a trick question.

 

 

Excerpt from: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/client-side-form-validation

 

As the observant reader might have noted, value in elements.item.value is represented as an object. But could it have been reached by elements.item(i).getAttribute('value')? No, that just shows the default value (if any) in a tag, not the value entered by the user.

 

 

 

[roughie]

fnairb - thanks much!