The Node.childNodes
read-only property returns a live
NodeList
of child nodes
of the given element where
the first child node is assigned index 0. Child nodes include elements, text and
comments.
Syntax
let nodeList = elementNodeReference.childNodes;
Examples
Simple usage
// parg is an object reference to a <p> element
// First check that the element has child nodes
if (parg.hasChildNodes()) {
let children = parg.childNodes;
for (let i = 0; i < children.length; i++) {
// do something with each child as children[i]
// NOTE: List is live! Adding or removing children will change the list's `length`
}
}
Remove all children from a node
// This is one way to remove all children from a node
// box is an object reference to an element
while (box.firstChild) {
//The list is LIVE so it will re-index each call
box.removeChild(box.firstChild);
}
Notes
The items in the collection of nodes are objects, not strings. To get data from node
objects, use their properties. (For example, to get the name of the first
childNode: elementNodeReference.childNodes[0].nodeName
.)
The document
object itself has 2 children: the Doctype declaration and the
root element, typically referred to as documentElement
. (In (X)HTML
documents this is the HTML
element.)
childNodes
includes all child nodes—including non-element nodes
like text and comment nodes. To get a collection of only elements, use
ParentNode.children
instead.
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
DOM The definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification. |
Living Standard | No change |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification The definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification. |
Obsolete | No change |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification The definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification. |
Obsolete | No change |
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification The definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification. |
Obsolete | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser