Grabbing the href attribute of an A element

Selecting multiple or dynamic href attributes

Sometimes, you're dealing with multiple anchors or dynamic cases. Use document.getElementsByTagName:

let anchors = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
for (let anchor of anchors) {
    console.log(anchor.outerHTML); // A loop is like our little tour around the city.
}
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To directly select href, try XPath:

let xpathResult = document.evaluate("//a/@href", document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);
for (let i = 0; i < xpathResult.snapshotLength; i++) {
    console.log(xpathResult.snapshotItem(i).textContent); // XPath sounding like a treasure map, right?
}
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Adapting to complex HTML

For more complex HTML or edge cases such as nested anchors or dynamic content, reliability is key:

• Use event delegation to handle dynamic anchors.
• Target an anchor when inside nested elements using element.closest('a').
• Always check for null when using querySelector to prevent exceptions crashing your party.

PHP: A server-side solution

You may need a more server-side solution like PHP, where DOM parsing shines:

$dom = new DOMDocument();
@$dom->loadHTML($htmlContent); 
$anchors = $dom->getElementsByTagName('a');
foreach ($anchors as $node) {
    if ($node->hasAttribute('href') {
        echo $node->getAttribute('href'); // Fetching hrefs like they're going out of style
    }
}
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Regex, the powerful beast

Though not recommended for parsing HTML, know the power and pitfalls of regex:

preg_match_all('/<a\s+(?:[^>]*?\s+)?href=(["\'])(.*?)\1/', $htmlContent, $matches);
print_r($matches[2]); // Regex walks into the bar and wipes out everything
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SimpleXML, the PHP handyman

Accessible via SimpleXML in PHP, read attributes in a jiffy:

$sxml = simplexml_load_string($htmlContent);
foreach ($sxml->a as $a) {
    echo $a['href']; // As suave as James Bond handling href attributes
}
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Challenges galore

JavaScript updating hrefs, AJAX, SPAs

When dealing with AJAX or SPA sites, the hrefs might act like change chameleons:

• Monitor changes using MutationObserver: Your very own href watchman.
• Track navigation changes in history-enabled web apps with window.onpopstate event: Always keep an eye on the past.

Regex extraction, quote styles, attribute sequences

The art of regex extraction copes with different quoting styles and attribute sequences:

preg_match_all('/<a\s[^>]*href=["\'](.*?)["\'][^>]*>/i', $htmlContent, $matches);
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Testing your regex patterns against real-world HTML prevents unsightly regex wrinkles.