Getting "Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token ;" error while using for loop

Question

Here I have a loop to iterator over html elements in a JSF application.

        var tmp = document.getElementsByTagName("input");
        var counter = 0;
        var arr = new Array();
        for (var i = 0; i<tmp.length; i++) {
            if (tmp[i].parentNode.nodeName === "TD" && tmp[i].getAttribute("type") !== "submit") {
                arr[counter] = tmp[i];
                counter++;
            }
        }

This loop is inside this script tag:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--    
     //-->
</script>

When I load the page in the web browser I get following error(shown in google chrome developer tools)

enter image description here

Why there is '<' instead of '<'? That's the error. < is only used in html — Drago96
– Drago96, Commented May 30, 2015 at 20:12

Michael Geary · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-30 20:29:38Z

3

As you can see in your screenshot, your script in the HTML page has < where it should have <. This is your syntax error. Are you generating this page with some templating language that "escapes" HTML code? That would cause this problem.

One good solution is to put your JavaScript code in a separate .js file. That should avoid the escaping and leave your code unchanged.

If you do need to have inline JavaScript right there in the HTML page, most templating languages have a way to turn off escaping for a specific piece of text.

edited May 30, 2015 at 20:29

answered May 30, 2015 at 20:12

Michael Geary

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3 Comments

user4913383 Over a year ago

I am using Facelets. Is that templating language?

user4913383 Over a year ago

I put JS code in separate file instead of script tags & it works.

Michael Geary Over a year ago

Ah yes, putting the JavaScript code in a separate .js file is the right solution, I should have mentioned that! I added it to the answer for future visitors.

Cu3PO42 · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-30 20:13:03Z

2

The line in picture 2 isn't the same as the one in picture 1. < was substituted for <, which is the HTML escape code for <. The error subsequently does not lie within your code itself, but somewhere in your development workflow. You either saved the file with the wrong contents (which I presume to be unlikely) or your web server or any pre processor is messing up by HTML escaping code inside script-tags.

answered May 30, 2015 at 20:13

Cu3PO42

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