Subclasses

Attr, Comment, Document, DocumentFragment, Element, Text

Constants

All nodes in an HTML document are instances of one of the Node subclasses listed above. Every Node object has a nodeType property that specifies which of the subclasses it is an instance of. The following constants are the legal values for nodeType. Note that these are static properties of Node, not properties of individual Node objects. They are not defined in Internet Explorer 4, 5, or 6; in those browsers you must use the corresponding integer literals.

Node.ELEMENT_NODE = 1;          // Element
Node.ATTRIBUTE_NODE = 2;        // Attr
Node.TEXT_NODE = 3;             // Text
Node.COMMENT_NODE = 8;          // Comment
Node.DOCUMENT_NODE = 9;         // Document
Node.DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE=11; // DocumentFragment

Properties

attributes[ ]

If this Node is an Element, the attributes property is a read-only array of Attr objects that represent the attributes of the element. The array can be indexed by number or by attribute name. All HTML attributes have corresponding Element properties, however, so it is uncommon to use the attributes[ ] array.

childNodes[ ]

This read-only array of Node objects contains the children of this node. If the node has no children, this property is a zero-length array.

firstChild

This read-only property refers to the first child Node of this node, or null if the node has no children.

lastChild

This read-only property refers to the last child Node of this node, or null if the node has no children.

nextSibling

The sibling Node that immediately follows this one in the childNodes[ ] array of the parentNode, or null if there is no such node. Read-only.

nodeName

The name of the node. For Element nodes, this property specifies the tag name of the element, which can also be retrieved with the tagName property of Element. For Attr nodes, this property specifies the attribute name. For other types of nodes, the value is a constant string that specifies the node type. Read-only.

nodeType

The type of the node. The legal values for this property are defined by the constants listed above.

nodeValue

The string value of a node. For Text and Comment nodes, this property holds the text content. For Attr nodes, it holds the attribute value. This property is read/write.

ownerDocument

The Document object of which this Node is a part. For Document nodes, this property is null. Read-only.

parentNode

The parent or container Node of this node, or null if there is no parent. Note that Document and Attr nodes never have parent nodes. Nodes that have been removed from the document or are newly created and have not yet been inserted into the document tree have a parentNode of null. Read-only.

previousSibling

The sibling Node that immediately precedes this one in the childNodes[ ] array of the parentNode, or null, if there is no such node.

Methods

addEventListener( type, listener, useCapture)

Registers an event listener for this node. type is a string that specifies the event type minus the "on" prefix (e.g., "click" or "submit"). listener is the event handler function. When triggered, it is invoked with an Event object as its argument. If useCapture is true, this is a capturing event handler. If false or omitted, it is a regular event handler. Returns nothing. DOM Level 2; not supported in IE 4, 5, or 6.

appendChild( newChild)

Adds the newChild Node to the document tree by appending it to the childNodes[ ] array of this node. If the node is already in the document tree, it is first removed before being reinserted at its new position. Returns the newChild argument.

cloneNode( deep)

Returns a copy of this node. If deep is true, the descendents of the node are recursively copied as well.

hasAttributes( )

Returns true if this node is an Element and has any attributes. DOM Level 2.

hasChildNodes( )

Returns true if this node has any children.

insertBefore( newChild, refChild)

Inserts the newChild Node into the document tree immediately before the refChild Node, which must be a child of this node. If the node being inserted is already in the tree, it is first removed. Returns newChild.

isSupported( feature, version)

Returns true if the specified version number of a named feature is supported by this node. See also DOMImplementation.hasFeature( ). DOM Level 2.

normalize( )

Normalizes all Text node descendants of this node by deleting empty Text nodes and merging adjacent Text nodes. Returns nothing.

removeChild( oldChild)

Removes the oldChild Node from the document tree. oldChild must be a child of this node. Returns oldChild.

removeEventListener( type, listener, useCapture)

Removes the specified event listener. Returns nothing. DOM Level 2; not supported in IE 4, 5, or 6.

replaceChild( newChild, oldChild)

Replaces the oldChild Node (which must be a child of this node) with the newChild Node. If newChild is already in the document tree, it is first removed from its current location. Returns oldChild.

See Also

Attr, Comment, Document, DocumentFragment, Element, Text