# Limiting search to elements with a certain class?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/limiting-search-to-elements-with-a-certain-class/252615>\
**Category:** web dev\
**Created:** [February 21, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/limiting-search-to-elements-with-a-certain-class/252615 "2008-02-21T18:43:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DougOfTheAbaci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DougOfTheAbaci](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/DougOfTheAbaci)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/limiting-search-to-elements-with-a-certain-class/252615/1 "2008-02-21T18:43:58Z")

</div>

I’ve been getting help trying to make this search function work the way it should but I can’t seem to get it that last little bit that would make it perfect. Basically, it allows the user to search in a table for corresponding results and then hides all rows that don’t privde a match. So far it works perfectly, minus one tiny little flaw I’m not willing to accept. It searches all of the text in each row. The reason this is a problem is I’m searching for keywords that are likely show up in places that will provide false results.

For instance in the [current working example](http://dougstewartdesign.com/tests/form_filter/) if you run a search, if the term shows up in the body of text it comes back as a positive. What if I had the word “web” in a print project? False positive, seem my problem?

I have a solution that would suite me just perfectly, the problem is I don’t know how to modify the code to make this work. If I could limit the search to just any element with the class of “tags” that would be enough. As I plan on keywording every project I put on the page it will provide a good solution to the problem until a better system can be found. Can anyone help me out? The class will only be applied to paragraphs.

```auto
function dog( id )
{
    return document.getElementById( id );
}

function filter ()
{
    var word_filter_arr = dog('phrase_filter').value.split(' ');
    var year_filter = dog('year_filter').value;
    var category_filter = dog('category_filter').value;
    
    var table = dog('result_table');
  
  
    var row_content;
    var element_filtered = false;
    var word_found = false;
    var element_visible = false;
    for (var r = 1; r < table.rows.length; r++)
    {
        row_content = table.rows[r].innerHTML.replace(/<[^>]+>/g,"");
        element_visible = false;
        if( word_filter_arr.length == 0 )
        {
           word_found = true;
        }                        
        for ( var i = 0; i < word_filter_arr.length; i++ ) 
        {
            if ( row_content.toLowerCase().indexOf( word_filter_arr* ) >=0 )
            {
                word_found = true;      
            }
        }
        if( word_found && ( row_content.toLowerCase().indexOf( year_filter ) >=0 || year_filter == -1 ) )
        {
            if( word_found && ( row_content.toLowerCase().indexOf( category_filter ) >=0 || category_filter == -1 ) )
            {
                element_visible = true;
            }
        }
        if( element_visible )
        {
            table.rows[r].style.display = 'block';
        }
        else
        {
            table.rows[r].style.display = 'none';
        }
    }
}

```