Example
Get the HTML content of the previous sibling of a list item:
var x =
document.getElementById("item2").previousElementSibling.innerHTML;
The result of x will be:
Coffee (first li)
Try it Yourself »
Definition and Usage
The previousElementSibling property returns the previous element of the specified element, in the same tree level.
The difference between this property and previousSibling, is that previousSibling returns the previous sibling node as an element node, a text node or a comment node, while previousElementSibling returns the previous sibling node as an element node (ignores text and comment nodes).
This property is read-only.
Tip: Use the nextElementSibling property to return the next element of the specified element.
Tip: Use the children property to return any child element of a specified element.
Browser Support
| Property | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| previousElementSibling | 2.0 | 9.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 10.0 |
Syntax
node.previousElementSibling
Technical Details
| Return Value: | A Node object, representing the previous sibling of an element, or null if there is no previous sibling |
|---|---|
| DOM Version | Core Level 3 Element Traversal |