HTML ID Reference Ambiguity Audit

Inventory all supplied document ID positions matching each explicit ID-reference token and identify ambiguity instead of arbitrarily choosing the first element.

Description

Inventory all supplied document ID positions matching each explicit ID-reference token and identify ambiguity instead of arbitrarily choosing the first element.

An ID reference becomes ambiguous when several supplied document positions have the same identifier. Retaining every match avoids silently selecting one occurrence.

When to use this tool

Inventory all supplied document ID positions matching each explicit ID-reference token and identify ambiguity instead of arbitrarily choosing the first element.

Prepare the supplied references, ids fields for this operation.
Compare the complete example with the representation used by your own input before carrying the result into another step.

How to use the tool and how it works

Enter references, ids. Use the exact text syntax, units and index conventions explained below.
Run the tool. If input validation fails, correct the supplied fields before interpreting any result.
Read result.references, result.ambiguous. Interpret false, null and empty lists using the distinctions below; they can be valid outputs.

Split references on HTML ASCII whitespace and deduplicate tokens in first-appearance order. For each token return all zero-based matching positions in ids; list tokens with more than one match as ambiguous.^[1]

Input field	Meaning and representation	Accepted input
references	references.	Text; at most 8,192 UTF-16 code units, subject to the grammar above
ids	ids.	List of strings; at most 128 entries

Output field	Interpretation
result	Object containing the named outputs below.
result.references	The references list in the ordering and representation described above.
result.ambiguous	The ambiguous list in the ordering and representation described above.

json

{
  "input": {
    "references": "a b",
    "ids": [
      "a",
      "a",
      "c"
    ]
  },
  "output": {
    "result": {
      "references": [
        {
          "id": "a",
          "matches": [
            0,
            1
          ]
        },
        {
          "id": "b",
          "matches": []
        }
      ],
      "ambiguous": [
        "a"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

The document-ID list is caller supplied. Missing references yield empty matches; DOM scope, reference-attribute semantics and accessibility are not verified.
All declared input fields are required and unexpected top-level fields are rejected. Numbers must be finite; lists are limited to 128 entries and ordinary text fields to 8,192 UTF-16 code units, with tighter limits where stated.
JSON text inputs must parse within bounded nesting and size limits. Numeric outputs outside the safe finite range are rejected; large exact integer results use decimal strings. Indexes and half-open spans are zero-based unless a rank is explicitly described as one-based.

Alternative or Complementary methods

For actual document behavior, inspect a parsed DOM and the relevant HTML algorithm. These tools transform supplied tokens, observations or coordinates; compare the browser result when parsing or layout matters.

References

Tool behavior and example: HTML ID Reference Ambiguity Audit — tool.io

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