Document.documentElement returns the Element that is the root element of the document (for example, the <html> element for HTML documents).
Document: documentElement property
Value
A Element object.
Examples
js
const rootElement = document.documentElement;
const firstTier = rootElement.childNodes;
// firstTier is a NodeList of the direct children of the root element
// such as <head> and <body>
for (const child of firstTier) {
// do something with each direct child of the root element
}
Notes
For any non-empty HTML document, documentElement will always be an <html> element. For any non-empty XML document, documentElement will always be whatever element is the root element of the document.
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| DOM Standard # ref-for-dom-document-documentelement① |
Browser compatibility
| Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari | WebView Android | Chrome Android | Firefox for Android | Opera Android | Safari on IOS | Samsung Internet | |
documentElement |
1 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 4.4 | 18 | 4 | 10.1 | 1 | 1.0 |
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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/documentElement