Web/API/Element/querySelector

The querySelector() method of the Element interface returns the first element that is a descendant of the element on which it is invoked that matches the specified group of selectors.

Syntax

element = baseElement.querySelector(selectors);

Parameters

selectors: A group of selectors to match the descendant elements of the Element baseElement against; this must be valid CSS syntax, or a SyntaxError exception will occur. The first element found which matches this group of selectors is returned.

Return value

The first descendant element of baseElement which matches the specified group of selectors. The entire hierarchy of elements is considered when matching, including those outside the set of elements including baseElement and its descendants; in other words, selectors is first applied to the whole document, not the baseElement, to generate an initial list of potential elements. The resulting elements are then examined to see if they are descendants of baseElement. The first match of those remaining elements is returned by the querySelector() method.

If no matches are found, the returned value is null.

Exceptions

SyntaxError: The specified selectors are invalid.

Examples

Let's consider a few examples.

Find a specific element with specific values of an attribute

In this first example, the first <style> element which either has no type or has type "text/css" in the HTML document body is returned:

var el = document.body.querySelector("style[type='text/css'], style:not([type])");

The entire hierarchy counts

This example demonstrates that the hierarchy of the entire document is considered when applying selectors, so that levels outside the specified baseElement are still considered when locating matches.

HTML

<div>
  <h5>Original content</h5>
  <p>
    inside paragraph
    <span>inside span</span>
    inside paragraph
  </p>
</div>
<div>
  <h5>Output</h5>
  <div id="output"></div>
</div>

JavaScript

var baseElement = document.querySelector("p");
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML =
  (baseElement.querySelector("div span").innerHTML);

Result

The result looks like this:

Notice how the "div span" selector still successfully matches the <span> element, even though the baseElement's child nodes do not include the div element (it is still part of the specified selector).

More examples

See Document.querySelector() for additional examples of the proper format for the selectors.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOMThe definition of 'querySelector()' in that specification.	Living Standard
Selectors API Level 2The definition of 'querySelectorAll()' in that specification.	Obsolete
Selectors API Level 1The definition of 'querySelectorAll()' in that specification.	Obsolete

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`querySelector`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5	IE Full support 9 Full support 9 Partial support 8 Notes' Notes' `querySelector()` is supported, but only for CSS 2.1 selectors.	Opera Full support 10	Safari Full support 3.1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 2	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.