Web/API/Element/setAttributeNode

The setAttributeNode() method adds a new Attr node to the specified element.

Syntax

var replacedAttr = element.setAttributeNode(attribute);

• attribute is the Attr node to set on the element.
• replacedAttr is the replaced attribute node, if any, returned by this function.

Example

This example copies the align attribute from one element to another.

HTML

<div id="one" align="left">one</div>
<div id="two">two</div>

JavaScript

let d1 = document.getElementById('one');
let d2 = document.getElementById('two');
let a = d1.getAttributeNode('align');

d2.setAttributeNode(a.cloneNode(true));

// Returns: 'left'
alert(d2.attributes[1].value);

Notes

If the attribute named already exists on the element, that attribute is replaced with the new one and the replaced one is returned.

This method is seldom used, with Element.setAttribute() usually being used to change element's attributes.

DOM methods dealing with element's attributes:

Not namespace-aware, most commonly used methods	Namespace-aware variants (DOM Level 2)	DOM Level 1 methods for dealing with Attr nodes directly (seldom used)	DOM Level 2 namespace-aware methods for dealing with Attr nodes directly (seldom used)
setAttribute (DOM 1)	setAttributeNS	setAttributeNode	setAttributeNodeNS
getAttribute (DOM 1)	getAttributeNS	getAttributeNode	getAttributeNodeNS
hasAttribute (DOM 2)	hasAttributeNS	-	-
removeAttribute (DOM 1)	removeAttributeNS	removeAttributeNode	-

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOMThe definition of 'setAttributeNode()' in that specification.	Living Standard

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

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
setAttributeNode	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 6	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support  

Full support

Element.setAttributeNode() by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.