Node.nodeType

The read-only Node.nodeType property is an integer that identifies what the node is. It distinguishes different kind of nodes from each other, such as elements, text and comments.

Syntax

var type = node.nodeType;

Returns an integer which specifies the type of the node. Possible values are listed in Node type constants.

Constants

Node type constants

Constant	Value	Description
`Node.ELEMENT_NODE`	`1`	An `Element` node like `<p>` or `<div>`.
`Node.ATTRIBUTE_NODE`	`2`	An `Attribute` of an `Element`.
`Node.TEXT_NODE`	`3`	The actual `Text` inside an `Element` or `Attr`.
`Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE`	`4`	A `CDATASection`, such as `<!CDATA[[ … ]]>`.
`Node.PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE`	`7`	A `ProcessingInstruction` of an XML document, such as `<?xml-stylesheet … ?>`.
`Node.COMMENT_NODE`	`8`	A `Comment` node, such as `<!-- … -->`.
`Node.DOCUMENT_NODE`	`9`	A `Document` node.
`Node.DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE`	`10`	A `DocumentType` node, such as `<!DOCTYPE html>`.
`Node.DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE`	`11`	A `DocumentFragment` node.

Deprecated node type constants

The following constants have been deprecated and should not be used anymore.

Constant	Value	Description
`Node.ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE`	5	An XML Entity Reference node, such as `&foo;`. Removed in DOM4.
`Node.ENTITY_NODE`	6	An XML `<!ENTITY …>` node. Removed in DOM4.
`Node.NOTATION_NODE`	12	An XML `<!NOTATION …>` node. Removed in DOM4.

Examples

Different types of nodes

document.nodeType === Node.DOCUMENT_NODE; // true
document.doctype.nodeType === Node.DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE; // true

document.createDocumentFragment().nodeType === Node.DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE; // true

var p = document.createElement("p");
p.textContent = "Once upon a time…";

p.nodeType === Node.ELEMENT_NODE; // true
p.firstChild.nodeType === Node.TEXT_NODE; // true

Comments

This example checks if the first node inside the document element is a comment, and displays a message if not.

var node = document.documentElement.firstChild;
if (node.nodeType !== Node.COMMENT_NODE) {
  console.warn("You should comment your code!");
}

Specifications

Specification
DOM Standard (DOM) # ref-for-dom-node-nodetype①

Browser compatibility

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