Web/API/Node/childNodes

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
DOMThe definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification.	Living Standard	No change
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core SpecificationThe definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification.	Obsolete	No change
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core SpecificationThe definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification.	Obsolete	No change
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 SpecificationThe definition of 'Node.childNodes' in that specification.	Obsolete	Initial definition

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
`childNodes`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 5	Opera Full support 7	Safari Full support 1.2	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 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support