path: root/files/tr/web/api/node/index.html

---
title: Node
slug: Web/API/Node
tags:
  - API
  - DOM
  - Interface
  - NeedsTranslation
  - Node
  - Reference
  - TopicStub
translation_of: Web/API/Node
---
<p>{{APIRef("DOM")}}</p>

<p><span class="seoSummary"><strong><code>Node</code></strong> is an interface from which various types of DOM API objects inherit, allowing those types to be treated similarly; for example, inheriting the same set of methods, or being testable in the same way.</span></p>

<p>All of the following interfaces inherit the <code>Node</code> interface's methods and properties: {{DOMxRef("Document")}}, {{DOMxRef("Element")}}, {{DOMxRef("Attr")}}, {{DOMxRef("CharacterData")}} (which {{DOMxRef("Text")}}, {{DOMxRef("Comment")}}, and {{DOMxRef("CDATASection")}} inherit), {{DOMxRef("ProcessingInstruction")}}, {{DOMxRef("DocumentFragment")}}, {{DOMxRef("DocumentType")}}, {{DOMxRef("Notation")}}, {{DOMxRef("Entity")}}, {{DOMxRef("EntityReference")}}</p>

<p>Those interfaces may return <code>null</code> in certain cases where the methods and properties are not relevant. They may throw an exception — for example when adding children to a node type for which no children can exist.</p>

<p>{{InheritanceDiagram}}</p>

<h2 id="Properties">Properties</h2>

<p><em>Inherits properties from its parent, {{DOMxRef("EventTarget")}}</em>.<sup>[1]</sup></p>

<dl>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.baseURI")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("DOMString")}} representing the base URL of the document containing the <code>Node</code>.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.baseURIObject")}} {{Non-standard_inline}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}{{Fx_MinVersion_Inline("3")}}</dt>
	<dd>(Not available to web content.) The {{ Interface("nsIURI") }} object representing the base URI for the element.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.childNodes")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a live {{DOMxRef("NodeList")}} containing all the children of this node. {{DOMxRef("NodeList")}} being live means that if the children of the <code>Node</code> change, the {{DOMxRef("NodeList")}} object is automatically updated.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.firstChild")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("Node")}} representing the first direct child node of the node, or <code>null</code> if the node has no child.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.isConnected")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>A boolean indicating whether or not the Node is connected (directly or indirectly) to the context object, e.g. the {{DOMxRef("Document")}} object in the case of the normal DOM, or the {{DOMxRef("ShadowRoot")}} in the case of a shadow DOM.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.lastChild")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("Node")}} representing the last direct child node of the node, or <code>null</code> if the node has no child.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.nextSibling")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("Node")}} representing the next node in the tree, or <code>null</code> if there isn't such node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.nodeName")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("DOMString")}} containing the name of the <code>Node</code>. The structure of the name will differ with the node type. E.g. An {{DOMxRef("HTMLElement")}} will contain the name of the corresponding tag, like <code>'audio'</code> for an {{DOMxRef("HTMLAudioElement")}}, a {{DOMxRef("Text")}} node will have the <code>'#text'</code> string, or a {{DOMxRef("Document")}} node will have the <code>'#document'</code> string.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.nodeType")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns an <code>unsigned short</code> representing the type of the node. Possible values are:
	<table class="standard-table">
		<thead>
			<tr>
				<th scope="col">Name</th>
				<th scope="col">Value</th>
			</tr>
		</thead>
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td><code>ELEMENT_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>1</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>ATTRIBUTE_NODE</code> {{Deprecated_Inline}}</td>
				<td><code>2</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>TEXT_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>3</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>CDATA_SECTION_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>4</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE</code> {{Deprecated_Inline}}</td>
				<td><code>5</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>ENTITY_NODE</code> {{Deprecated_Inline}}</td>
				<td><code>6</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>7</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>COMMENT_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>8</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>DOCUMENT_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>9</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>10</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE</code></td>
				<td><code>11</code></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td><code>NOTATION_NODE</code> {{Deprecated_Inline}}</td>
				<td><code>12</code></td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
	</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.nodeValue")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns / Sets the value of the current node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.ownerDocument")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns the {{DOMxRef("Document")}} that this node belongs to. If the node is itself a document, returns <code>null</code>.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.parentNode")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("Node")}} that is the parent of this node. If there is no such node, like if this node is the top of the tree or if doesn't participate in a tree, this property returns <code>null</code>.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.parentElement")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns an {{DOMxRef("Element")}} that is the parent of this node. If the node has no parent, or if that parent is not an {{DOMxRef("Element")}}, this property returns <code>null</code>.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.previousSibling")}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("Node")}} representing the previous node in the tree, or <code>null</code> if there isn't such node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.textContent")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns / Sets the textual content of an element and all its descendants.</dd>
</dl>

<h3 id="Obsolete_properties">Obsolete properties</h3>

<dl>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.localName")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("DOMString")}} representing the local part of the qualified name of an element.
	<div class="blockIndicator note">
	<p><strong>Note:</strong> In Firefox 3.5 and earlier, the property upper-cases the local name for HTML elements (but not XHTML elements). In later versions, this does not happen, so the property is in lower case for both HTML and XHTML.</p>
	</div>
	</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.namespaceURI")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>The namespace URI of this node, or <code>null</code> if it is no namespace.
	<div class="blockIndicator note">
	<p><strong>Note:</strong> In Firefox 3.5 and earlier, HTML elements are in no namespace. In later versions, HTML elements are in the <code><a class="linkification-ext external" href="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/">http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/</a></code> namespace in both HTML and XML trees.</p>
	</div>
	</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.nodePrincipal")}} {{Non-standard_inline}}{{Obsolete_Inline("gecko46")}}{{Fx_MinVersion_Inline("3")}}</dt>
	<dd>A {{Interface("nsIPrincipal")}} representing the node principal.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.prefix")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Is a {{DOMxRef("DOMString")}} representing the namespace prefix of the node, or <code>null</code> if no prefix is specified.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.rootNode")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}{{ReadOnlyInline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("Node")}} object representing the topmost node in the tree, or the current node if it's the topmost node in the tree. This has been replaced by {{DOMxRef("Node.getRootNode()")}}.</dd>
</dl>

<h2 id="Methods">Methods</h2>

<p><em>Inherits methods from its parent, {{DOMxRef("EventTarget")}}</em>.<sup>[1]</sup></p>

<dl>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.appendChild()", "Node.appendChild(<var>childNode</var>)")}}</dt>
	<dd>Adds the specified <code><var>childNode</var></code> argument as the last child to the current node.<br>
	If the argument referenced an existing node on the DOM tree, the node will be detached from its current position and attached at the new position.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.cloneNode()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Clone a {{DOMxRef("Node")}}, and optionally, all of its contents. By default, it clones the content of the node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.compareDocumentPosition()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Compares the position of the current node against another node in any other document.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.contains()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{jsxref("Boolean")}} value indicating whether or not a node is a descendant of the calling node.</dd>
	<dt>{{domxref("Node.getBoxQuads()")}} {{experimental_inline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a list of the node's CSS boxes relative to another node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.getRootNode()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns the context object's root which optionally includes the shadow root if it is available. </dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.hasChildNodes()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{jsxref("Boolean")}} indicating whether or not the element has any child nodes.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.insertBefore()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Inserts a {{DOMxRef("Node")}} before the reference node as a child of a specified parent node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.isDefaultNamespace()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Accepts a namespace URI as an argument and returns a {{jsxref("Boolean")}} with a value of <code>true</code> if the namespace is the default namespace on the given node or <code>false</code> if not.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.isEqualNode()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{jsxref("Boolean")}} which indicates whether or not two nodes are of the same type and all their defining data points match.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.isSameNode()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{jsxref("Boolean")}} value indicating whether or not the two nodes are the same (that is, they reference the same object).</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.lookupPrefix()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{DOMxRef("DOMString")}} containing the prefix for a given namespace URI, if present, and <code>null</code> if not. When multiple prefixes are possible, the result is implementation-dependent.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.lookupNamespaceURI()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Accepts a prefix and returns the namespace URI associated with it on the given node if found (and <code>null</code> if not). Supplying <code>null</code> for the prefix will return the default namespace.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.normalize()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Clean up all the text nodes under this element (merge adjacent, remove empty).</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.removeChild()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Removes a child node from the current element, which must be a child of the current node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.replaceChild()")}}</dt>
	<dd>Replaces one child {{DOMxRef("Node")}} of the current one with the second one given in parameter.</dd>
</dl>

<h3 id="Obsolete_methods">Obsolete methods</h3>

<dl>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.getFeature()")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}</dt>
	<dd></dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.getUserData()")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}</dt>
	<dd>Allows a user to get some {{DOMxRef("DOMUserData")}} from the node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.hasAttributes()")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{jsxref("Boolean")}} indicating if the element has any attributes, or not.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.isSupported()")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}</dt>
	<dd>Returns a {{jsxref("Boolean")}} flag containing the result of a test whether the DOM implementation implements a specific feature and this feature is supported by the specific node.</dd>
	<dt>{{DOMxRef("Node.setUserData()")}} {{Obsolete_Inline}}</dt>
	<dd>Allows a user to attach, or remove, {{DOMxRef("DOMUserData")}} to the node.</dd>
</dl>

<h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2>

<h3 id="Remove_all_children_nested_within_a_node">Remove all children nested within a node</h3>

<pre class="brush: js">function removeAllChildren(element) {
  while (element.firstChild) {
    element.removeChild(element.firstChild)
  }
}</pre>

<h4 id="Sample_usage">Sample usage</h4>

<pre class="brush: js;">/* ... an alternative to document.body.innerHTML = "" ... */
removeAllChildren(document.body)</pre>

<h3 id="Recurse_through_child_nodes">Recurse through child nodes</h3>

<p>The following function recursively calls a callback function for each node contained by a root node (including the root itself):</p>

<pre class="brush: js;">function eachNode(rootNode, callback) {
	if (!callback) {
		const nodes = []
		eachNode(rootNode, function(node) {
			nodes.push(node)
		})
		return nodes
	}

	if (false === callback(rootNode)) {
		return false
    }

	if (rootNode.hasChildNodes()) {
		const nodes = rootNode.childNodes
		for (let i = 0, l = nodes.length; i &lt; l; ++i) {
			if (false === eachNode(nodes[i], callback)) {
				return
            }
        }
	}
}
</pre>

<h4 id="Syntax">Syntax</h4>

<pre class="syntaxbox">eachNode(<var>rootNode</var>, <var>callback</var>)</pre>

<h4 id="Description">Description</h4>

<p>Recursively calls a function for each descendant node of <code><var>rootNode</var></code> (including the root itself).</p>

<p>If <code><var>callback</var></code> is omitted, the function returns an {{jsxref("Array")}} instead, which contains <code><var>rootNode</var></code> and all nodes contained within.</p>

<p>If <code><var>callback</var></code> is provided, and it returns {{jsxref("Boolean")}} <code>false</code> when called, the current recursion level is aborted, and the function resumes execution at the last parent's level. This can be used to abort loops once a node has been found (such as searching for a text node which contains a certain string).</p>

<h4 id="Parameters">Parameters</h4>

<dl>
	<dt><code><var>rootNode</var></code></dt>
	<dd>The <code>Node</code> object whose descendants will be recursed through.</dd>
	<dt><code><var>callback</var></code> {{optional_inline}}</dt>
	<dd>An optional callback <a href="/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Function">function</a> that receives a <code>Node</code> as its only argument. If omitted, <code>eachNode</code> returns an {{jsxref("Array")}} of every node contained within <code><var>rootNode</var></code> (including the root itself).</dd>
</dl>

<h4 id="Sample_usage_2">Sample usage</h4>

<p>The following example prints the <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/API/Node/textContent"><code>textContent</code></a> properties of each <code>&lt;span&gt;</code> tag in a <code>&lt;div&gt;</code> element named <code>"box"</code>:</p>

<pre class="brush: html;">&lt;div id="box"&gt;
  &lt;span&gt;Foo&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span&gt;Bar&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span&gt;Baz&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;</pre>

<pre class="brush: js;">const box = document.getElementById("box")
eachNode(box, function(node) {
  if (null != node.textContent) {
    console.log(node.textContent)
  }
})</pre>

<p>The above will result in the following strings printing to the user's console:</p>

<pre class="brush: js;">"\n\t", "Foo", "\n\t", "Bar", "\n\t", "Baz"</pre>

<div class="blockIndicator note">
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Whitespace forms part of a {{DOMxRef("Text")}} node, meaning indentation and newlines form separate <code>Text</code> between the <code>Element</code> nodes.</p>
</div>

<h4 id="Realistic_usage">Realistic usage</h4>

<p>The following demonstrates a real-world use of the <code>eachNode()</code> function: searching for text on a web-page.</p>

<p>We use a wrapper function named <code>grep</code> to do the searching:</p>

<pre class="brush: js;">function grep(parentNode, pattern) {
	const matches = []
	let endScan = false

	eachNode(parentNode, function(node){
		if (endScan) {
			return false
        }

		// Ignore anything which isn't a text node
		if (node.nodeType !== Node.TEXT_NODE) {
			return
        }

		if (typeof pattern === "string") {
			if (-1 !== node.textContent.indexOf(pattern)) {
				matches.push(node)
            }
		}
		else if (pattern.test(node.textContent)) {
			if (!pattern.global) {
				endScan = true
				matches = node
			}
			else {
                matches.push(node)
            }
		}
	})

	return matches
}</pre>

<p>For example, to find {{DOMxRef("Text")}} nodes that contain typos:</p>

<pre class="brush: js;">const typos = ["teh", "adn", "btu", "adress", "youre", "msitakes"]
const pattern = new RegExp("\\b(" + typos.join("|") + ")\\b", "gi")
const mistakes = grep(document.body, pattern)
console.log(mistakes)
</pre>

<h2 id="Specifications">Specifications</h2>

<table class="standard-table">
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<th scope="col">Specification</th>
			<th scope="col">Status</th>
			<th scope="col">Comment</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>{{SpecName("DOM WHATWG", "#interface-node", "Node")}}</td>
			<td>{{Spec2("DOM WHATWG")}}</td>
			<td>Added the following methods: <code>getRootNode()</code></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>{{SpecName("DOM4", "#interface-node", "Node")}}</td>
			<td>{{Spec2("DOM4")}}</td>
			<td>Removed the following properties: <code>attributes</code>, <code>namespaceURI</code>, <code>prefix</code>, and <code>localName</code>.<br>
			Removed the following methods: <code>isSupported()</code>, <code>hasAttributes()</code>, <code>getFeature()</code>, <code>setUserData()</code>, and <code>getUserData()</code>.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>{{SpecName("DOM3 Core", "core.html#ID-1950641247", "Node")}}</td>
			<td>{{Spec2("DOM3 Core")}}</td>
			<td>The methods <code>insertBefore()</code>, <code>replaceChild()</code>, <code>removeChild()</code>, and <code>appendChild()</code> returns one more kind of error (<code>NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR</code>) if called on a {{DOMxRef("Document")}}.<br>
			The <code>normalize()</code> method has been modified so that {{DOMxRef("Text")}} node can also be normalized if the proper {{DOMxRef("DOMConfiguration")}} flag is set.<br>
			Added the following methods: <code>compareDocumentPosition()</code>, <code>isSameNode()</code>, <code>lookupPrefix()</code>, <code>isDefaultNamespace()</code>, <code>lookupNamespaceURI()</code>, <code>isEqualNode()</code>, <code>getFeature()</code>, <code>setUserData()</code>, and <code>getUserData().</code><br>
			Added the following properties: <code>baseURI</code> and <code>textContent</code>.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>{{SpecName("DOM2 Core", "core.html#ID-1950641247", "Node")}}</td>
			<td>{{Spec2("DOM2 Core")}}</td>
			<td>The <code>ownerDocument</code> property was slightly modified so that {{DOMxRef("DocumentFragment")}} also returns <code>null</code>.<br>
			Added the following properties: <code>namespaceURI</code>, <code>prefix</code>, and <code>localName</code>.<br>
			Added the following methods: <code>normalize()</code>, <code>isSupported()</code> and <code>hasAttributes()</code>.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>{{SpecName("DOM1", "level-one-core.html#ID-1950641247", "Node")}}</td>
			<td>{{Spec2("DOM1")}}</td>
			<td>Initial definition.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Browser_compatibility">Browser compatibility</h2>



<p>{{Compat("api.Node")}}</p>