Document.body

The Document.body property represents the <body> or <frameset> node of the current document, or null if no such element exists.

Syntax

const objRef = document.body
document.body = objRef

Example

// Given this HTML: <body id="oldBodyElement"></body>
alert(document.body.id); // "oldBodyElement"

const aNewBodyElement = document.createElement("body");

aNewBodyElement.id = "newBodyElement";
document.body = aNewBodyElement;
alert(document.body.id); // "newBodyElement"

Notes

document.body is the element that contains the content for the document. In documents with <body> contents, returns the <body> element, and in frameset documents, this returns the outermost <frameset> element.

Though the body property is settable, setting a new body on a document will effectively remove all the current children of the existing <body> element.

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
HTML Living Standard
The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.		 Living Standard
HTML 5.1
The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.		 Recommendation
HTML5
The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.		 Recommendation

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also