How to Easily Replace Text in a Table Column with Javascript without an ID

Discover how to update text in table columns using simple `Javascript` methods, even when no IDs are present in your HTML structure.
---

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: How to replace text in a table column with Javascript without any Table ID

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
How to Easily Replace Text in a Table Column with Javascript without an ID

When working with HTML tables, there may come a time when you need to replace specific text in a column, but you face a challenge: you don't have direct access to modify the HTML to add IDs or any specific selectors. This issue often arises in dynamically-generated content, such as content management systems, where you can’t add or adjust IDs.

In this guide, we'll explore how to replace all occurrences of the text "ABC" in column 2 of several tables with the new text "XYZ" using JavaScript. Let's break down the solution into clear sections to make it easy to follow.

Understanding the Problem

To illustrate the problem, consider the following HTML structure:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In the example above, you can see that there are multiple tables. Our goal is to find all <td> elements in column 2 and check if they contain the text "ABC". If they do, we want to replace that text with "XYZ".

The Solution

You can achieve this with a simple loop that iterates over each table row and its corresponding columns. Here’s how you can do it:

Using a Query Selector

Loop Through the Selected Elements: Utilize a for...of loop to iterate through each selected <td> element.

Conditional Text Replacement: Inside the loop, check if the text content of the <td> equals "ABC". If it does, replace it with "XYZ".

Here's the complete JavaScript code:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation of the Code

for (const td of ...): Loops through each selected <td>.

Conclusion

By applying this simple JavaScript approach, you can efficiently replace specific text in a table's column without needing any identifiers like IDs. This technique is particularly useful in scenarios where you are interacting with dynamically generated content and need lightweight solutions.

Feel free to try this method on your web projects and never hesitate to adapt it as per your needs!