Came across issue when trying to calling:

$("#dropdownid").attr("onchange") in IE7

$("#dropdownid").attr("onchange") value is "javascript:dosomething()"

on other browsers it returns a string of "javascript:dosomething()" which is the correct behavior defined in the documents, but when running this function in IE7 it returns a function:

function onchange(){
  dosomething();
}

Suggestion:

ret = elem.getAttribute( name );
if(typeof ret === "function"){
  //use getAttributeNode only if needed due to efficiency 
  ret = elem.getAttributeNode(name);
}