About electrical code?

[Roger]

I am working on a bathroom remodel for my own house. This morning I was looking at some pendant lights at IKEA. Some said the fixture had to be hard wired into an electrical box, others came with a standard plug.

I did notice that the one marked as hardwired hung by the electrical cord. One of the lights that had a plug hung by a non electrical support cable and the electrical wire only carried its own weight and not the weight of the lamp.

Is that the difference in the code requirements?

Thanks for any explanation you can give me.

[tomot]

All lighting fixtures, come either ready to be plugged into an electrical receptacle or they need to be directly connected to an electrical box containing a hot, neutral, and ground wires. You don't have to concern yourself about the code requirements since each lighting fixture sold has to be UL approved first, prior to sale.
Pendent lights may have an additional supporting wire or chain arrangement to carry the weight of the fixture. Some low voltage pendent lighting fixtures are indeed designed to support their weight via their low voltage current carrying wires.
Its more important to not have the light switch operating the bath lights close to the sink.
I usually mount the switch outside the Bathroom Door.