[jQuery] do I really have to use xml?

[jQuery] do I really have to use xml?


I have an array of nodes which are being created in a for loop
for n 1 to 30 etc etc which makes nodes like this in the html
<li name="1" id="hh_010_0160" >hh_010_0160 </li>
etc
etc
<li name="30" id="hh_010_0160" >hh_010_0160 </li>
so in other words each node has an array index in the name
and some javascript which has
items = parent.getElementsByTagName(li);
so far so good it all works fine
but, then i sort the item list and want to get the array index of the
sorted item, i.e the name
so I've tried
for(p=0;p<N;p++){
rank=parseInt((items[p].nodeName))
But as I guess everybody knows it just gives me back LI not the name
of the node i.e my array integer value
Is there a way to get the name in jquery or do I really have to use
xml??
thanks for any help