This is an experimental technologyCheck the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.
The ParentNode.replaceChildren()
method replaces the existing children of a Node
with a specified new set of children. These can be DOMString
or Node
objects.
Syntax
// [Throws, Unscopable] ParentNode.replaceChildren(...nodesOrDOMStrings) // returns undefined
Parameters
nodesOrDOMStrings
- A set of
Node
orDOMString
objects to replace theParentNode
's existing children with. If no replacement objects are specified, then theParentNode
is emptied of all child nodes.
Exceptions
HierarchyRequestError
: The constraints of the node tree are violated.
Examples
Emptying a node
replaceChildren()
provides a very convenient mechanism for emptying a node of all its children. You simply call it on the parent node without any argument specified:
myNode.replaceChildren();
Transferring nodes between parents
replaceChildren()
enables you to easily transfer nodes between parents, without having to resort to verbose looping code. For example, say we have a simple application allowing you to choose what food you want for your party. This HTML might look something like this:
<h2>Party food option list</h2>
<main>
<div>
<label for="no">No thanks!</label>
<select id="no" multiple size="10">
<option>Apples</option>
<option>Oranges</option>
<option>Grapes</option>
<option>Bananas</option>
<option>Kiwi fruits</option>
<option>Chocolate cookies</option>
<option>Peanut cookies</option>
<option>Chocolate bars</option>
<option>Ham Sandwiches</option>
<option>Cheese Sandwiches</option>
<option>Falafel sandwiches</option>
<option>Ice cream</option>
<option>Jelly</option>
<option>Carrot sticks and houmous</option>
<option>Margherita pizza</option>
<option>Pepperoni pizza</option>
<option>Vegan veggie pizza</option>
</select>
</div>
<div class="buttons">
<button id="to-yes">Transfer to "Yes" --></button>
<button id="to-no"><-- Transfer to "No"</button>
</div>
<div>
<label for="yes">Yes please!</label>
<select id="yes" multiple size="10">
</select>
</div>
</main>
It would make sense to use some simple CSS to lay out the two select lists in a line alongside one another, with the control buttons in between them:
main {
display: flex;
}
div {
margin-right: 20px;
}
label, button {
display: block;
}
.buttons {
display: flex;
flex-flow: column;
justify-content: center;
}
select {
width: 200px;
}
What we want to do is transfer any selected options in the "no" list over to the "yes" list when the "yes" button is pressed, and transfer any selected options in the "yes" list over to the "no" list when the "no" button is pressed.
To do this, we give each of the buttons a click event handler, which collects together the selected options you want to transfer in one constant, and the existing options in the list you are transferring to in another constant. It then calls replaceChildren()
on the list to transfer the options to, using the spread operator to pass in all the options contained in both constants.
const noSelect = document.getElementById('no');
const yesSelect = document.getElementById('yes');
const noBtn = document.getElementById('to-no');
const yesBtn = document.getElementById('to-yes');
yesBtn.addEventListener('click', () => {
const selectedTransferOptions = document.querySelectorAll('#no option:checked');
const existingYesOptions = document.querySelectorAll('#yes option');
yesSelect.replaceChildren(...selectedTransferOptions, ...existingYesOptions);
});
noBtn.addEventListener('click', () => {
const selectedTransferOptions = document.querySelectorAll('#yes option:checked');
const existingNoOptions = document.querySelectorAll('#no option');
noSelect.replaceChildren(...selectedTransferOptions, ...existingNoOptions);
});
The end result looks like this:
Specification
Specification | Status | Comment |
DOMThe definition of 'ParentNode.replaceChildren()' in that specification. | Living Standard | Initial definition. |
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
Full support 86 |
Edge
Full support 86 |
Firefox
Full support 78 |
IE
No support No |
Opera
Full support 72 |
Safari
Full support 14 |
WebView Android
Full support 86 |
Chrome Android
Full support 86 |
Firefox Android
No support No |
Opera Android
No support No |
Safari iOS
Full support 14 |
Samsung Internet Android
No support No |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.'
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
See also
ParentNode.replaceChildren() by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.