Node.hasChildNodes()

The Node.hasChildNodes() method returns a Boolean value indicating whether the current Node has child nodes or not.

Syntax

result = node.hasChildNodes();

result

holds the return value true or false.

Examples

The next example removes the first child node inside the element with the id "foo" if foo has child nodes.

var foo = document.getElementById("foo");
if (foo.hasChildNodes()) { 
    // do something with 'foo.childNodes'
}

Polyfill

;(function(prototype) {
    prototype.hasChildNodes = prototype.hasChildNodes || function() {
        return !!this.firstChild;
    }
})(Node.prototype);

Summary

There are various ways to determine whether the node has a child node.

• node.hasChildNodes()
• node.firstChild != null (or just node.firstChild)
• node.childNodes && node.childNodes.length (or node.childNodes.length > 0)

Specification

• WHATWG: hasChildNodes
• hasChildNodes

Browser compatibility

We're converting our compatibility data into a machine-readable JSON format. This compatibility table still uses the old format, because we haven't yet converted the data it contains. Find out how you can help!

See also

• Node.childNodes
• Node.hasAttributes