Describe the approach to addressing HTML elements using getElementById.

In JavaScript, the `getElementById` method is used to obtain a reference to an HTML element using its `id` attribute value. The method searches the entire document for the specified element and returns the first element that matches the specified `id`.

To use the `getElementById` method, you need to pass the `id` attribute value of the HTML element to it as an argument. For example, to obtain a reference to an HTML element with an `id` of "myElement", you can use the following code:

var myElement = document.getElementById('myElement');

Once you have obtained a reference to the element, you can perform various operations on it, such as changing its content or style, adding or removing classes, or attaching event listeners.

It is important to note that the `getElementById` method only works for HTML elements that have an `id` attribute set. If an element does not have an `id` attribute, you can use other methods such as `getElementsByTagName` or `getElementsByClassName` to obtain references to the element.