getElementById behavior in Sarari

Hello:

I want to test if an element exists on a page and display appropriate UI
to the user depending on if the element was there.

function foo()
{
if(document.getElementById('element') == null )
{
//element was not there
//do something appropriate
return;
}
//element was there do something else
}

This works fine in Firefox and IE, but the script just busts and stops
working in Safari. I'm a javascript novice, so any advice on how to handle
this situation would be much appreciate.

FWIW, I tried this using $ in the prototype library, and got the same
result. Thanks.

Cheers, Rick

<snip>

1. It's Safari 3.2.1

2. My program is rendering HTML and javascript on the server. Sometimes it
renders 'element' and sometimes it doesn't. document.getElementById works
properly in Safari when 'element' is there, so I know the browser supports
the function. When 'element' is not there it's as if Safari never returns
from the function instead of returns null.

1) Is the id always unique when it occurs?

2) Did you try renaming "element" to something less 'dangerous'
sounding? These pages recommends against using "element":

http://www.javascripter.net/faq/reserved.htm
http://www.felgall.com/jsref1.htm
http://www.quackit.com/javascript/ja...rved_words.cfm

3) What does this code do?

function findid(id){
var unique_element = document.getElementById(id);
if (unique_element == null){
alert('Unknown section id: "' + id + '"');
}else{
alert('An element with the id: "' + id + '" was Found!'
}
}

Mike