Great javascript function

Ever use associative arrays to name a form element? <INPUT type="submit" name="doThis[foo]" value="Do Foo"> Ever try to use that name with javascript? alert ( document.myform.doThis['foo'].value ) ; It doesn't work. Or at least, I don't see how it would. The brackets are interpreted differently in javascript than in PHP. You would have to resort to addressing javascript's element array, assuming you know what it is: alert ( document.myform.elements[3].value ) ; So, taking a technique from the ORACLE Form Builder suite, I wrote this function in javascript: function find_element ( form, element_name ) { with ( form ) { for ( var i = 0 ; i < elements.length ; i++ ) if ( elements[i].name == element_name ) return i ; return -1 ; } } And it's used like this: var int = find_element ( document.myform, 'doThis[foo]' ) ; if ( int > -1 ) alert ( document.myform.elements[int].value ) ; else alert ( 'No such element.' ) ; You could do it all inline, too. You should check to see if it return -1, meaning it couldn't find that value. Enjoy! Anthony