JS & DOM Reference
OverviewJavaScript Objects
JS Array JS Boolean JS Date JS Math JS Number JS String JS RegExp JS GlobalBrowser Objects
Window Navigator Screen History LocationCore DOM Objects
DOM Node DOM NodeList DOM NamedNodeMap DOM Document DOM Element DOM AttrHTML DOM Objects
DOM Document DOM Events DOM ElementsDOM Anchor DOM Area DOM Base DOM Body DOM Button DOM Form DOM Frame/IFrame DOM Frameset DOM Image DOM Input Button DOM Input Checkbox DOM Input File DOM Input Hidden DOM Input Password DOM Input Radio DOM Input Reset DOM Input Submit DOM Input Text DOM Link DOM Meta DOM Object DOM Option DOM Select DOM Style DOM Table DOM td / th DOM tr DOM Textarea
DOM Node Object
Definition and Usage
The Node object represents a node in the HTML document.
A node in an HTML document is:
- The Document
- An element
- An attribute
- Text
- A comment
All of the node types are explained in the Node Types reference at the bottom of this page.
Browser Support
The Node object is supported in all major browsers.
Node Object Properties
The "DOM" column indicates in which DOM Level the property was introduced.
| Property | Description | DOM |
|---|---|---|
| attributes | Returns a collection of a node's attributes | 1 |
| baseURI | Returns the absolute base URI of a node | 3 |
| childNodes | Returns a NodeList of child nodes for a node | 1 |
| firstChild | Returns the first child of a node | 1 |
| lastChild | Returns the last child of a node | 1 |
| localName | Returns the local part of the name of a node | 2 |
| namespaceURI | Returns the namespace URI of a node | 2 |
| nextSibling | Returns the next node at the same node tree level | 1 |
| nodeName | Returns the name of a node, depending on its type | 1 |
| nodeType | Returns the type of a node | 1 |
| nodeValue | Sets or returns the value of a node, depending on its type | 1 |
| ownerDocument | Returns the root element (document object) for a node | 2 |
| parentNode | Returns the parent node of a node | 1 |
| prefix | Sets or returns the namespace prefix of a node | 2 |
| previousSibling | Returns the previous node at the same node tree level | 1 |
| textContent | Sets or returns the textual content of a node and its descendants | 3 |
Node Object Methods
The "DOM" column indicates in which DOM Level the method was introduced.
| Method | Description | DOM |
|---|---|---|
| appendChild() | Adds a new child node, to the specified node, as the last child node | 1 |
| cloneNode() | Clones a node | 1 |
| compareDocumentPosition() | Compares the document position of two nodes | 1 |
| getFeature(feature,version) | Returns a DOM object which implements the specialized APIs of the specified feature and version | 3 |
| getUserData(key) | Returns the object associated to a key on a this node. The object must first have been set to this node by calling setUserData with the same key | 3 |
| hasAttributes() | Returns true if a node has any attributes, otherwise it returns false | 2 |
| hasChildNodes() | Returns true if a node has any child nodes, otherwise it returns false | 1 |
| insertBefore() | Inserts a new child node before a specified, existing, child node | 1 |
| isDefaultNamespace() | Returns true if the specified namespaceURI is the default, otherwise false | 3 |
| isEqualNode() | Checks if two nodes are equal | 3 |
| isSameNode() | Checks if two nodes are the same node | 3 |
| isSupported() | Returns true if a specified feature is supported on a node, otherwise false | 2 |
| lookupNamespaceURI() | Returns the namespace URI matching a specified prefix | 3 |
| lookupPrefix() | Returns the prefix matching a specified namespace URI | 3 |
| normalize() | Joins adjacent text nodes and removes empty text nodes | 2 |
| removeChild() | Removes a child node | 1 |
| replaceChild() | Replaces a child node | 1 |
| setUserData(key,data,handler) | Associates an object to a key on a node | 3 |
Node Types
Documents, elements, attributes, and other aspects of an HTML document has different node types.
There are 12 different node types, which may have children of various node types:
| Node type | Description | Children | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Element | Represents an element | Element, Text, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATASection, EntityReference |
| 2 | Attr | Represents an attribute | Text, EntityReference |
| 3 | Text | Represents textual content in an element or attribute | None |
| 4 | CDATASection | Represents a CDATA section in a document (text that will NOT be parsed by a parser) | None |
| 5 | EntityReference | Represents an entity reference | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, EntityReference |
| 6 | Entity | Represents an entity | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, EntityReference |
| 7 | ProcessingInstruction | Represents a processing instruction | None |
| 8 | Comment | Represents a comment | None |
| 9 | Document | Represents the entire document (the root-node of the DOM tree) | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, DocumentType |
| 10 | DocumentType | Provides an interface to the entities defined for the document | None |
| 11 | DocumentFragment | Represents a "lightweight" Document object, which can hold a portion of a document | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, EntityReference |
| 12 | Notation | Represents a notation declared in the DTD | None |
Node Types - Return Values
The return value of the nodeName and the nodeValue properties for each node type:
| Node type | nodeName returns | nodeValue returns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Element | element name | null |
| 2 | Attr | attribute name | attribute value |
| 3 | Text | #text | content of node |
| 4 | CDATASection | #cdata-section | content of node |
| 5 | EntityReference | entity reference name | null |
| 6 | Entity | entity name | null |
| 7 | ProcessingInstruction | target | content of node |
| 8 | Comment | #comment | comment text |
| 9 | Document | #document | null |
| 10 | DocumentType | doctype name | null |
| 11 | DocumentFragment | #document fragment | null |
| 12 | Notation | notation name | null |
NodeTypes - Named Constants
| NodeType | Named Constant |
|---|---|
| 1 | ELEMENT_NODE |
| 2 | ATTRIBUTE_NODE |
| 3 | TEXT_NODE |
| 4 | CDATA_SECTION_NODE |
| 5 | ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE |
| 6 | ENTITY_NODE |
| 7 | PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE |
| 8 | COMMENT_NODE |
| 9 | DOCUMENT_NODE |
| 10 | DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE |
| 11 | DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE |
| 12 | NOTATION_NODE |
Your suggestion:
Close [X]
Thank You For Helping Us!
Your message has been sent to W3Schools.
Close [X]
