ParentNode.children

Node.children is a read-only property that returns a live HTMLCollection of the child elements of Node.

Syntax

JavaScript
var elList = elementNodeReference.children; 

elList is a HTMLCollection, which is an ordered collection of DOM elements that are children of elementNodeReference. If there are no element children, then elList contains no elements and has a length of 0.

Example

JavaScript
// pEl is a reference to a <p> element
var elementChildren = pEl.children;
for (var i = 0; i < elementChildren.length; i++) {
    console.log(elementChildren[i].tagName);
    // NOTE: elementChildren is a live list, adding or removing children from pEl
    // will change the members of elementChildren immediately
}

Specification

Specification Status Comment
DOM
The definition of 'ParentNode.children' in that specification.
Living Standard Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support (on Element) 1.0 3.5 (1.9.1) 9.0 [1] 10.0 4.0
Support on Document and DocumentFragment 29.0 25.0 (25.0) Not supported 16.0 Not supported
Support on SVGElement (Yes) (Yes) Not supported ? Not supported
Feature Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (on Element) (Yes) 1.0 (1.9.1) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)
Support on Document and DocumentFragment (Yes) 25.0 (25.0) Not supported 16.0 Not supported

[1] Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 supported it, but erroneously includes Comment nodes.

See also

License

© 2016 Mozilla Contributors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/api/parentnode/children

API DOM ParentNode Property