DOM Core

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DOM methods and properties that are for all implementations, and not just for the JavaScript one. In theory almost all of them should work in any programming language that supports the DOM.

This is the desktop table. See also the mobile table.

Last major update on 3 September 2013.

Creating elements

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
createElement()
Create a new element

Test page
Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
var x = document.createElement('P')
Create a new HTML element node <P> and temporarily place it in x, which is later inserted into the document.
  • IE8 and below also support ('<P>').
  • IE8 and below return a lower-case nodeName for custom elements such as ppk.
createTextNode()
Create a new text node

Test page
Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
var x = document.createTextNode('text')

Create a text node with content text and temporarily place it in x, which is later inserted into the document.

  • IE8 and lower cannot add a text node to a <style> tag.
Text() constructor
To create text nodes with a constructor.

Test page
No No No No Yes Yes
var text = new Text('Oh, how quick that fox was!');

text is now a text node that can be appended to the document.

Getting elements

These methods are meant for getting the HTML elements you need from the document.

You must know these methods by heart.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
getElementById()
Get the element with this ID

Test page Lower case 'd'!!
Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
var x = document.getElementById('test')

Take the element with id="test" (wherever it is in the document) and put it in x.

If there is more than one element with id="test", the method selects the first in the document. All others are ignored.

  • IE7 and lower also return the element with name="test".
getElementsByClassName()
Get a nodeList of the elements with this class.

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
document.getElementsByClassName('test')
document.getElementsByClassName('test test2')

The first expression returns a nodeList with all elements that have a class value that contains "test". The second one returns a nodeList will all elements that have a class value that contains both "test" and "test2" (in any order).

getElementsByTagName()
Get all tags of this type

Test page
Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
var x = document.getElementsByTagName('P')

Make x into a nodeList of all P's in the document, so x[1] is the second P etc.

var x = y.getElementsByTagName('P')

Gets all paragraphs that are descendants of node y.

  • The * argument, which ought to select all elements in the document, doesn't work in IE 5.5.
querySelector()
Get the first element that conforms to a CSS selector

Test page
No Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
document.querySelector('.testClass')
document.querySelector('.testClass + p')

Returns the first element that have a class value that contains "testClass"; or the first element that directly follows such an element.

  • IE8 seems to support only simple selectors. Descendant selectors (div.className p) are not supported.
querySelectorAll()
Get a nodeList of elements by CSS selector

Test page
No Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
document.querySelectorAll('.testClass')
document.querySelectorAll('.testClass + p')

Returns a nodeList with all elements that have a class value that contains "testClass"; or a nodeList with all paragraphs directly following such an element.

Essentially, this method allows you to use CSS syntax to retrieve elements.

  • IE8 seems to support only simple selectors. Descendant selectors (div.className p) are not supported.
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

Node information

These four properties give basic information about all nodes. What they return depends on the node type. They are read-only, except for nodeValue.

There are three basic node types: element nodes (HTML tags), attribute nodes and text nodes. I test these properties for all these three types and added a fourth node type: the document node (the root of all other nodes).

You must know these properties by heart.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
nodeName
The name of the node in UPPER CASE

Test page
Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.nodeName

The name of node x. The correct names are:

Element Attribute Text Comments Document
the UPPER CASE tag name the attribute name #text #comment #document
  • IE 5.5 doesn't support a nodeName for attributes and the document.
  • IE 5.5 reports the nodeName of a comment as !.
  • Interesting incompatibility: what is the nodeName of an attribute testAttribute? IE and Opera 12 retain the camelCase, the other browsers say testattribute all lower-case. The spec is entirely silent on this subject.
nodeType
The type of the node

Test page
Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.nodeType

The type of node x. The correct types are:

Element Attribute Text Comments Document
1 2 3 8 9
  • IE 5.5: attributes and document not defined; comment has nodeType 1
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
nodeValue
The value of the node, if any. Read/write

Test page
Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.nodeValue

Get the value of node x

x.nodeValue = 'Test'

Set the value of node x

Element Attribute Text Comments Document
n/a Value of attribute Content of text node Content of comment node n/a
  • IE 5.5 doesn't support nodeValue for attributes
  • Konqueror doesn't see comment nodes.
tagName
The tag name of an element node

Test page Don't use
Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.tagName

Get the tag name of node x. Correct values are:

Element Attribute Text Comments Document
the UPPER CASE tag name n/a n/a n/a n/a

My advice is not to use tagName at all.
nodeName contains all functionalities of tagName, plus a few more. Therefore nodeName is always the better choice.

  • In IE8 and lower the tagName of a comment node is !
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

The DOM tree

Five properties and two arrays for walking through the DOM tree. Using these properties, you can reach nodes that are close to the current node in the document structure.

In general you shouldn't use too many of these properties. As soon as you're doing something like

x.parentNode.firstChild.nextSibling.children[2]

your code is too complicated. Complex relationships between nodes can suddenly and unexpectedly change when you alter the document structure, and altering the document structure is the point of the W3C DOM. In general you should use only one or two of these properties per action.

You must know these properties by heart.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
childNodes[]
An array with all child nodes of the node

Test page
Incorrect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.childNodes[1]

Get the second child node of node x.

The childNodes nodeList consists of all child nodes of the element, including (empty) text nodes and comment nodes.

  • IE8 and lower do not count empty text nodes. Thus, childNodes really contains the nodeList that children should give.
firstChild
The first child node of the node

Test page
Incorrect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.firstChild

Get the first child node of node x.

  • IE8 and lower do not count empty text nodes.
hasChildNodes()
Check if the node has child nodes

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.hasChildNodes()

Returns true when node x has child nodes; false when it hasn't.

lastChild
The last child node of the node

Test page
Incorrect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.lastChild

Get the last child of node x.

  • IE8 and lower do not count empty text nodes.
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
nextSibling
The next sibling node of the node

Test page
Incorrect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.nextSibling

Get the next child of the parent of x.

  • IE8 and lower do not count empty text nodes.
parentNode
The parent node of the node

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.parentNode

Get the parent node of x.

previousSibling
The previous sibling node of the node

Test page
Incorrect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.previousSibling

Get the previous child of the parent of x.

  • IE8 and lower do not count empty text nodes.
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

DOM Traversal

A few useful properties that should have been in the DOM from the start but mysteriously weren’t.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
childElementCount
The number of element children

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.childElementCount
children[]
An array with all child element nodes of the node

Test page
Incorrect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.children[1]

Get the second element child node of node x.

Where childNodes holds all child nodes, children only holds those that are element nodes (HTML tags).

  • IE8 and lower incorrectly count comment nodes, too.
firstElementChild
The first child that is an element node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.firstElementChild
lastElementChild
The last child that is an element node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.lastElementChild
nextElementSibling
The next element node sibling

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.nextElementSibling
previousElementSibling
The previous element node sibling

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.previousElementSibling
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

Node manipulation

These five methods allow you to restructure the document. The average DOM script uses at least two of these methods.

The changes in the document structure are applied immediately, the whole DOM tree is altered. The browser, too, will immediately show the changes.

You must know these methods by heart.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
appendChild()
Append a child node as the last node to an element

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.appendChild(y)

Make node y the last child of node x.

If you append a node that's somewhere else in the document, it moves to the new position.

cloneNode()
Clone a node

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x = y.cloneNode(true | false)

Make node x a copy of node y. If the argument is true, the entire tree below y is copied, if it's false only the root node y is copied. Later you insert the clone into the document.

Note: Event handlers are not cloned. This is an error in the spec.

Also, eventually cloneNode() without argument will mean cloneNode(true), as it should have from the start. Only Firefox supports this yet, as did Presto-based Opera 12 (but not Blink-based Opera 15/16).

insertBefore()
Insert a node into the child nodes of an element

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.insertBefore(y,z)

Insert node y as a child of node x just before node z.

removeChild()
Remove a child node from an element

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.removeChild(y)

Remove child y of node x.

replaceChild()
Replace a child node of an element by another child node

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.replaceChild(y,z)

Replace node z, a child of node x, by node y.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

New node manipulation methods

These methods are brand-new. They should have been in the DOM from the start.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
after()
Add a node after another node

Test page
No No No No No
x.after(y)

Insert node y just after node x.

append()
Add a node as the last child

Test page
No No No No No
x.append(y)

Insert node y as the last child of node x.

(This is exactly the same as appendChild())

before()
Add a node before another node

Test page
No No No No No
x.before(y)

Insert node y just before node x.

prepend()
Add a node as the first child

Test page
No No No No No
x.prepend(y)

Insert node y as the first child of node x.

remove()
Remove a node

Test page
No Yes No No Yes Yes
x.remove()

Remove node x from the document.

No more x.parentNode.removeChild(x), in other words.

replace()
Replace a node by another node

Test page
No No No No No
x.replace(y)

Replace node x by node y.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

Text data

These methods are for manipulating text data, i.e. the contents of text nodes.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
appendData()
Append data to a text node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.appendData(' some extra text')

Appends the string some extra text to x, which must be a text node.

data
The content of a text node

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.data

The content of x, which must be a text node. The same as x.nodeValue.

Can also be set:

x.data = 'The new text'
deleteData()
Delete text from a text node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.deleteData(4,3)

Delete some data from x, which must be a text node, starting at the fifth character and deleting three characters. Second argument is required.

insertData()
Insert text into a text node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.insertData(4,' and now for some extra text ')

Insert the string and now for some extra text after the fourth character into x, which must be a text node.

normalize()
Merge adjacent text nodes into one node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.normalize()

All child nodes of node x that are text nodes and have other text nodes as siblings, are merged. This is in fact the reverse of splitText: text nodes that were split, come together again.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
replaceData()
Replace text in a text node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.replaceData(4,3,' and for some new text ')

Replace three characters, beginning at the fifth one, of node x, which must be a text node, by the string and for some new text.

splitText()
Split a text node into two text nodes

Test page
Buggy Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.splitText(5)

Split the text node x at the 6th character. x now contains the first part (char. 0-5), while a new node is created (and becomes x.nextSibling) which contains the second part (char. 6-end) of the orginial text.

  • IE bug: up to 9 it handles the first splitText() fine, but after you’ve normalized the text IE doesn’t split it any more.
    This is an old bug, but curiously my IE7 doesn’t show it any more, though IE8 and IE9 do. I’m going to assume wild IE7s do have this bug. But you might get lucky.
substringData()
Take a substring of the text in the text node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.substringData(4,3)

Takes a substring of x, which must be a text node, starting at the fifth character and with a length of three characters. Thus it's the same as the old substr() method of strings.

wholeText
The text of a text node plus the text in directly adjacent text nodes. Read only.

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

This read-only property is useful if you want to get the entire text at a certain point and don’t want to be bothered by borders between text nodes.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

Attributes

A bloody mess. Try influencing attributes in this order:

  1. Try getting or setting a specific property, like x.id or y.onclick.
  2. If there is no specific property, use getAttribute() or setAttribute().
  3. If even that doesn't work, try any other method or property in the table below. Most have horrible browser incompatibility patterns, though.
  4. Avoid attributes[]. It's worse than anything else.

In my view any method or property concerning attribute nodes should also work on the style attribute, event handlers and custom attributes. If not I judge the method or property incomplete.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
attributes[index]
An array with the attributes of a node, accessed by index number, in the order they're defined in the source code.

Test page Do not use Use getAttribute() instead
Incorrect Incorrect Yes Yes Yes
x.attributes[1]

This array consists of all defined attributes in the source code order .

  • Firefox and IE try to create a list in source code order, but the order is off.
  • IE 5.5 initially gives the value of the attribute; not the attribute object.

Do yourself a favour and don't use the indexed attributes array.

attributes[key]
An array with the attributes of a node, accessed by attribute name

Test page
Incorrect Incomplete Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.attributes['align']

Get the align attribute object of node x. If the node has no align attribute, it returns undefined (except in IE, where it returns an attribute object that has no value.)

  • IE7 and lower don't return the value of a style attribute.
  • IE8 and above do, but where the test would expect color: green, IE8 returns COLOR: green, and IE9 and up color: green; (with semicolon).
  • IE7 and lower do not accept UPPER CASE attribute names.
  • IE 5.5 doesn't return custom attributes, and initially gives the attribute value instead of an attribute object.
createAttribute()
Create a new attribute node

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
z = document.createAttribute('title');
z.value = 'Test title';
x.setAttributeNode(z)

This creates a title attribute with a value and sets it on node x.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
getAttribute()
Get the value of an attribute

Test page
Incomplete Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.getAttribute('align')

Gives the value of the align attribute of node x. Upper case attribute names are also allowed.

  • In IE5-7, accessing the style attribute gives an object, and accessing the onclick attribute gives an anonymous function wrapped around the actual content.
  • IE8 and above return the inline styles, but where the test would expect color: green, IE8 returns COLOR: green, and IE9 and up color: green; (with semicolon).
getAttributeNode()
Get an attribute node

Test page
No Incomplete Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.getAttributeNode('align')

Get the attribute object align of node x. This is an object, not a value.

  • IE 6/7 don't allow you to access the value of x.getAttributeNode('style').
  • IE8 and above return the inline styles, but where the test would expect color: green, IE8 returns COLOR: green, and IE9 and up color: green; (with semicolon).
hasAttribute()
Check if a node has a certain attribute

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.hasAttribute('align')

Returns true when node x has an align attribute, false when it hasn't.

hasAttributes()
Check if a node has attributes

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.hasAttributes()

Returns true when node x has attributes, false when it hasn't.

name
The name of an attribute

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Almost Yes Yes
x.name

The name of attribute node x.

  • Presto-based Opera 12 returns ALIGN upper-case, but onclick and style lower-case.
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
removeAttribute()
Remove an attribute node

Test page
Almost Yes Weird Yes Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.removeAttribute('align')

Remove the align attribute from node x.

  • IE5-7 don't remove event handlers.
  • IE8 does remove event handlers, as does IE10.
  • IE11 doesn’t.
  • Some IE9s remove event handlers, others don’t.
  • This is weird.
  • Fortunately, no one in his right mind will use removeAttribute to remove event handlers.
removeAttributeNode()
Remove an attribute node

Test page
No Minimal Almost Yes Almost Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.removeAttributeNode(x.attributes['align'])
x.removeAttributeNode(x.attributes[1])
x.removeAttributeNode(x.getAttributeNode('align'))

Removes the attribute node. There is little difference with removeAttribute(), except in the argument.

  • IE 6 does't remove anything, but doesn't give an error message either.
  • IE 7 doesn't remove styles and event handlers.
  • See removeAttribute() for event handlers in IE. Exception: they are not removed in IE10, either.
setAttribute()
Set the value of an attribute

Test page
Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.setAttribute('align','right')

Set the align attribute of node x to right. The name and value are both strings.

  • IE5-7 doesn't set styles and removes events when you try to set them.
setAttributeNode()


Test page
No Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.setAttributeNode(node)

Add attribute node node to the element.

  • IE7 and lower don't set styles and events.
value
The value of an attribute

Test page
No Incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.value

The value of attribute x.

  • IE7 and lower give null for style values.
  • IE8 and above return the inline styles, but where the test would expect color: green, IE8 returns COLOR: green, and IE9 and up color: green; (with semicolon).
Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

Miscellaneous

A lot of miscellaneous methods and properties that you'll rarely need. I use only two of them in an actual script.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
compareDocumentPosition()
Gives the relative place of one element compared to another.

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.compareDocumentPosition(y)

Compares the document (DOM) position of element y to that of element x The method returns a bitmask:

  • 1: Position disconnected
  • 2: Precedes
  • 4: Follows
  • 8: Contains
  • 16: Is contained by

All relevant numbers are added, and this sum is returned. So if y follows (4) and is contained by (16) x, the method returns 20.

contains()
Check whether an element contains another element

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.contains(y)

If node y is a descendant of node x, the method returns true, else false.

createDocumentFragment()
Create a document fragment

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x = document.createDocumentFragment();
x.[fill with nodes];
document.[somewhere].appendChild(x);

Create a fragment, add a lot of nodes to it, and then insert it into the document. Note that the fragment itself is not inserted, only its child nodes.

documentElement
The HTML tag

Test page
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
document.documentElement

Represents the root element of the XML document. In any HTML document, the <html> element is of course the root element.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
getElementsByName()
Get elements by their name attribute

Test page
Incorrect and incomplete Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
var x = document.getElementsByName('test')

Create a nodeList with all elements that have name="test". It should ignore elements with id="test"

On my test page the <p>, <input>, <img> and <ppk> tags have this name, while there's also a paragraph with id="test". Ideally, all browsers should get the first four elements and ignore the fifth one.

  • IE9 and lower ignore the <p> and <ppk> tags with name="test", but counts the <div> with id="test"
isEqualNode()
Whether two nodes are the same

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.isEqualNode(y)

Returns true when x and y refer to the same node; false if they don’t.

ownerDocument
The document that 'owns' the element

Test page
No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
x.ownerDocument

Refers to the document object that 'owns' node x. This is the document node.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

Microsoft extensions

As usual Microsoft has extended the standard somewhat. Though sometimes its extensions are brilliant (innerHTML springs to mind), in the case of the DOM Core they aren't.

Note the difference between W3C and Microsoft methods. The W3C methods are owned by the parent element of the node you want to adjust, the Microsoft methods by the node itself.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux
applyElement()
Something with nodes

Test page
Yes No No No No
var y = document.createElement('i');
x.applyElement(y)

The <i> element is inserted into element x, around the text.

clearAttributes()
Remove all attributes from a node

Test page
Incomplete No No No No
x.clearAttributes()

Remove all attributes from node x.

  • IE doesn't clear event handlers and inline styles.
mergeAttributes()
Copy all attributes of one node to another node

Test page
Yes No No No No
x.mergeAttributes(y)

Copy all of node y's attributes to node x.

removeNode()
Remove a node

Test page
Yes No No No No
x.removeNode(true | false)

Remove node x from the document. If you use the argument true its children are also removed; if you use false they aren't. Note that all text nodes count as children, too.

replaceNode()
Replace a node by another node

Test page
Yes No No No No
x.replaceNode(y)

Replace node x by node y.

sourceIndex
The index number of the node in the page source

Test page
Yes Incorrect No No No No
x.sourceIndex

Get the sourceIndex of element x. This is also the index number for the element in the document.getElementsByTagName('*') array.

  • IE9 and up return a sourceIndex that’s one higher than it should be, and thus the link to document.getElementsByTagName('*') is lost. This extra element is the DOCTYPE declaration.
swapNode()
Swap two nodes

Test page
Yes No No No No
x.swapNode(y)

Put node x in node y's place and vice versa.

Method or property Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera Chrome
5.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 23 Win 23 Mac 23 Linux 6 12 Win 12 Mac 12 Linux 16 Win 16 Mac 29 Win 29 Mac 29 Linux

Tested browsers

Desktop browser test array 1.0; September 2013

IE5.5 and 6
I do not test on IE5.5 and 6 any more, so they’re not tested for newer methods and properties that they don’t support anyway. However, I copy all information from older versions of the Tables.
IE7
Trident
On Windows Vista virtualization
IE 8, 9, and 11
Trident
On separate Windows 7 virtualizations
IE10
Trident
On Windows RT (Windows 8)
Firefox
Gecko
23 on Linux; 23.0.1 on Windows 7 and Mac
Safari
WebKit
6.0.5 on Mac
Opera 12
Presto
12.16 Win7, Mac, and Linux
Opera 16
Blink
16.0 Win7 and Mac
Chrome
Blink
29 Win7, Mac, and Linux

Operating systems

Mac
MacBook Pro 17'' with OS 10.7.5
This is my main test station. It also runs all virtual Windows systems.
Windows Vista and 7
All downloaded from modern.ie. I use VirtualBox, and downloded the Windows 7 systems for all browsers but IE7, which runs on Vista.
The non-IE Windows browsers all run on the IE9/Win7 virtualization.
Windows RT
Microsoft Surface with Windows RT
Linux
Ubuntu 12.04 on pretty old hardware. Not fair for performance comparisons.