120681 - getAttribute() returns null if attribute does not have value

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 108480

(Core :: DOM: Core & HTML, defect)

Description

[Sivakiran Tummala]

BuildID:    2001-01-15-03

getAttribute() returns null if attribute does not have value. 
It is supposed to return empty string. Testcase attached. This bug is a 
regression from 6.2.1

Reproducible: Always
Actual Results:  null
Expected Results:  empty string

Comment 1

[Sivakiran Tummala]

Attachment: testcase attached

Comment 2

[Sivakiran Tummala]

adding keywords testcase and regression.

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Duplicate of 108480.  We do this on purpose and by design.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 108480 ***

Comment 4

[Sivakiran Tummala]

verified

Comment 5

[Erik Arvidsson]

I don't want to be rude or anything (I'm just interested). What's the purpose of
this design?

Comment 6

[Johnny Stenback (:jst)]

The purpose of the design is to let people call getAttribute() and check the
return value against null to see if the attribute was set or not. It saves you a
call if whether the attribute is there or not means different things than if the
attribute is there but has an empty value.