HTML DOM nodeTypeProperty
Element ObjectExamples
Returns the node type of the body element:
document.body.nodeType;
Output:
1
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Definition and Usage
The nodeType property returns the node type.
If the node is an element node, the nodeType property returns 1.
If the node is an attribute node, the nodeType property returns 2.
If the node is a text node, the nodeType property returns 3.
If the node is a comment node, the nodeType property returns 8.
This property is read-only.
Browser Support
All major browsers support the nodeType property
Syntax
node.nodeType
Technical Details
| Return Value: | String, representing the node type of the node. |
|---|---|
| DOM Version | Core Level 1 Node Object |
Node Types
An HTML or XML document, its elements, attributes, etc. have different node types.
There are 12 different node types, and different node types can also have different child node types:
| Node Type | Description | Child Nodes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Element | An element | Element, Text, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATASection, Entity Reference |
| 2 | Attr | An attribute | Text, Entity Reference |
| 3 | Text | The text content of an element or attribute | None |
| 4 | CDATASection | A CDATA section of a document (text will not be parsed by the parser) | None |
| 5 | Entity Reference | Entity Reference | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, Entity Reference |
| 6 | Entity | An entity | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, Entity Reference |
| 7 | ProcessingInstruction | A processing instruction | None |
| 8 | Comment | A comment | None |
| 9 | Document | The entire document (the root node of the DOM tree) | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, DocumentType |
| 10 | DocumentType | Provides an interface for document entities | None |
| 11 | DocumentFragment | Represents adjacent nodes and their subtrees. | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, Entity Reference |
| 12 | Notation | Represents a declaration of a notation in the DTD | None |
Node Types - Return Values
Returns the node name and the value of the node value property for each node type:
| Node Type | nodeName Return Value | nodeValue Return Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Element | Element name | null |
| 2 | Attr | Attribute name | Attribute value |
| 3 | Text | #text | Node content |
| 4 | CDATASection | #cdata-section | Node content |
| 5 | Entity Reference | Entity reference name | null |
| 6 | Entity | Entity name | null |
| 7 | ProcessingInstruction | target | Node content |
| 8 | Comment | #comment | Comment text |
| 9 | Document | #document | null |
| 10 | DocumentType | doctype name | null |
| 11 | DocumentFragment | #document fragment | null |
| 12 | Notation | Notation name | null |
Node Types - Static Variable Names
| Node Types | Named Constant |
|---|---|
| 1 | ELEMENT_NODE |
| 2 | ATTRIBUTE_NODE |
| 3 | TEXT_NODE |
| 4 | CDATA_SECTION_NODE |
| 5 | ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE |
| 6 | ENTITY_NODE |
| 7 | PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE |
| 8 | COMMENT_NODE |
| 9 | DOCUMENT_NODE |
| 10 | DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE |
| 11 | DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE |
| 12 | NOTATION_NODE |
Other Extensions