Getting document.getElementByName with a substring

With the cons开发者_JS百科traint that you can't use jquery, what's the best way to get all element names that start with a specific string? (These are checkboxes, and I want to clear all the others when one is checked.

My solution works, but it seems less than optimal; is there a better approach?

What I'm doing is putting the checkboxes within a div and getting all the children of the div, and then comparing their name to what I'm looking for. Here's the javascript:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function clearCheckboxes(name, id, divtag) {
   if (document.getElementById(id).checked == false) { 
         return; 
   }

   var listbox = document.getElementById(divtag);
   var list = listbox.childNodes;  
   for(var i = 0; i < list.length; i++) {
      if (list[i].type != "checkbox") continue; 
      if (list[i].id == id) continue;
      if (list[i].name.substr(0, name.length) == name)
      {
            list[i].checked = false;
      }
   }
}

and then the html looks like this:

<div id="tag_div_2">
   <input type="checkbox" name="tags_Type_4"  id="4" onclick="clearCheckboxes('tags_Type_',4,'tag_div_2');" />3 Stone Ring

   <input type="checkbox" name="tags_Type_3"  id="3" onclick="clearCheckboxes('tags_Type_',3,'tag_div_2');" />Engagement Ring

   <input type="checkbox" name="tags_Type_2"  id="2" onclick="clearCheckboxes('tags_Type_',2,'tag_div_2');" />Solitaire

   <input type="checkbox" name="tags_Type_5"  id="5" onclick="clearCheckboxes('tags_Type_',5,'tag_div_2');" />Wedding Set
</div>

I think I'd just use "getElementsByTagName()".

var inputs = document.getElementById('tag_div_2').getElementsByTagName('input');
var checkboxes = [];
for (var i = 0; i < inputs.length; ++i)
  if (inputs[i].type === "checkbox" && inputs[i].name.substr(0, name.length === name)) {
    checkboxes.push(inputs[i]);
  }

Of course you don't have to filter by type if you know that's not necessary due to your naming conventions.

These are checkboxes, and I want to clear all the others when one is checked.

Why not use a radio button instead?