Example
Get a collection of the <body> element's child nodes:
var c =
document.body.childNodes;
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More "Try it Yourself" examples below.
Definition and Usage
The childNodes property returns a collection of a node's child nodes, as a NodeList object.
The nodes in the collection are sorted as they appear in the source code and can be accessed by index numbers. The index starts at 0.
Note: Whitespace inside elements is considered as text, and text is considered as nodes. Comments are also considered as nodes.
Tip: You can use the length property of the NodeList object to determine the number of child nodes, then you can loop through all child nodes and extract the info you want.
This property is read-only.
Tip: To return a collection of a node's element nodes (excluding text and comment nodes), use the children property.
Tip: element.childNodes[0] will produce the same result as the firstChild property.
Browser Support
| Property | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| childNodes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Syntax
element.childNodes
Technical Details
| Return Value: | A NodeList object, representing a collection of nodes. The nodes in the returned collection are sorted as they appear in the source code |
|---|---|
| DOM Version | Core Level 1 Element Object |
More Examples
Example
Find out how many child nodes a <div> element has:
var c =
document.getElementById("myDIV").childNodes.length;
The result of c will be:
5
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Example
Change the background color of the second child node (index 1) of a <div> element:
var c = document.getElementById("myDIV").childNodes;
c[1].style.backgroundColor = "yellow";
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Example
Get the text of the third child node (index 2) of a <select> element:
var c = document.getElementById("mySelect").childNodes[2].text;
The result of c will be:
Saab
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Related Pages
HTML DOM reference: node.firstChild Property
HTML DOM reference: node.lastChild Property
HTML DOM reference: node.parentNode Property
HTML DOM reference: node.nextSibling Property
HTML DOM reference: node.previousSibling Property
HTML DOM reference: node.nodeName Property