javascript get child by id

In modern browsers (IE8, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari) you can use querySelector():

function test(el){
  el.querySelector("#child").style.display = "none";
}

For older browsers (<=IE7), you would have to use some sort of library, such as Sizzle or a framework, such as jQuery, to work with selectors.

As mentioned, IDs are supposed to be unique within a document, so it's easiest to just use document.getElementById("child").

This works well:

function test(el){
  el.childNodes.item("child").style.display = "none";
}

If the argument of item() function is an integer, the function will treat it as an index. If the argument is a string, then the function searches for name or ID of element.

If the child is always going to be a specific tag then you could do it like this

function test(el)
{
 var children = el.getElementsByTagName('div');// any tag could be used here..

  for(var i = 0; i< children.length;i++)
  {
    if (children[i].getAttribute('id') == 'child') // any attribute could be used here
    {
     // do what ever you want with the element..  
     // children[i] holds the element at the moment..

    }
  }
}