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Dom Node Met Text Replacedata Prop Documenttype Internalsubset Dom Nodes Navigate Dom Nodes Replace Met Element Hasattributes Met Element Hasattributens Dom Nodes Access Dom Prop Node Nodetype Dom Comment Met Element Lookupprefix Met Node Lookupnamespaceuri Met Text Substringdata Prop Documenttype Entities Prop Element Nodetype Prop Element Parentnode Met Element Appendchild Prop Document Lastchild Dom Nodes Clone Met Element Comparedocumentposition Dom Parser Met Text Appenddata Dom Met Element Removeattributenode Prop Cdata Length Dom Processinginstruction Prop Attr Nodename Met Element Lookupnamespaceuri Dom Prop Node Lastchild Dom Documenttype Dom Prop Element Tagname Dom Met Document Createelement Prop Attr Localname Met Nodemap Removenameditem Prop Element Prefix Dom Prop Node Textcontent Dom Prop Document Stricterrorchecking Dom Met Node Removechild Met Comment Deletedata Met Element Getattributens Dom Met Nodelist Item Dom Met Node Hasattributes Dom Met Document Createtextnode Dom Prop Document Doctype Index Prop Attr Nodevalue Dom Met Element Hasattribute Dom Met Node Haschildnodes Dom Met Element Getelementsbytagname Prop Document Xmlencoding Prop Document Xmlversion Dom Nodelist Dom Met Node Appendchild Dom Met Document Getelementsbytagname Dom Prop Node Childnodes Dom Prop Document Inputencoding Dom Prop Node Nodename Prop Element Nodename Prop Element Namespaceuri Dom Nodes Met Document Createelementns Dom Errors Dom Loadxmldoc Dom Met Element Removeattribute Prop Element Lastchild Prop Element Previoussibling Dom Met Element Setattribute Met Element Getelementsbytagnamens Prop Documenttype Systemid Dom Prop Attr Specified Dom Prop Attr Isid Dom Nodes Add Dom Met Node Replacechild Met Text Deletedata Prop Element Nextsibling Prop Attr Nodetype Dom Prop Node Firstchild Dom Nodes Get Met Cdata Insertdata Met Element Haschildnodes Xml Dom Examples Dom Prop Nodelist Length Met Element Insertbefore Prop Cdata Data Dom Prop Document Implementation Met Comment Appenddata Dom Met Element Setattributenode Met Element Removechild Met Cdata Substringdata Dom Tutorial Met Text Splittext Prop Text Data Prop Node Localname Dom Met Node Comparedocumentposition Dom Met Node Issamenode Dom Mozilla Vs Ie Met Document Getelementsbytagnamens Prop Document Nodetype Dom Prop Document Documentelement Prop Attr Baseuri Dom Met Node Clonenode Dom Nodes Set Met Cdata Replacedata Dom Prop Node Nextsibling Prop Element Firstchild Met Element Getattributenodens Dom Met Document Renamenode Dom Namednodemap Dom Prop Document Documenturi Dom Nodes Traverse Met Element Clonenode Dom Intro Dom Prop Attr Name Dom Met Node Insertbefore Dom Methods Prop Node Baseuri Dom Document Met Cdata Deletedata Met Node Lookupprefix Dom Validate Prop Element Childnodes Dom Summary Dom Nodes Remove Met Text Insertdata Prop Nodemap Length Dom Attribute Dom Nodes Info Met Element Isequalnode Met Element Setattributens Met Element Replacechild Dom Met Element Getattribute Met Nodemap Item Dom Http Dom Nodetype Prop Attr Ownerdocument Prop Document Firstchild Dom Met Document Createcomment Prop Text Length Prop Element Textcontent Prop Attr Namespaceuri Dom Cdatasection Dom Prop Node Namespaceuri Prop Element Ownerdocument Met Comment Substringdata Prop Element Attributes Prop Comment Length Dom Prop Node Previoussibling Met Element Issamenode Prop Document Nodevalue Dom Prop Node Ownerdocument Prop Document Async Prop Document Nodename Prop Node Prefix Dom Prop Node Nodevalue Dom Text Prop Documenttype Name Prop Comment Data Prop Attr Ownerelement Dom Documentimplementation Prop Attr Prefix Prop Attr Textcontent Met Comment Replacedata Met Cdata Appenddata Prop Document Childnodes Met Nodemap Getnameditem Dom Prop Attr Value Met Document Createcdatasection Dom Errors Crossbrowser Dom Nodes Create Met Comment Insertdata Dom Nodetree Met Element Removeattributens Met Cdata Splittext Dom Httprequest Dom Met Element Getattributenode Dom Met Node Isequalnode Prop Document Xmlstandalone Prop Element Baseuri Prop Element Localname Dom Prop Node Parentnode Dom Nodes Nodelist Dom Element
❮ Dom Prop Node Nextsibling Met Element Getattributenodens ❯

XML DOM firstChild Property

Definition and Usage

The firstChild property returns the first child node of the selected element.

If the selected node has no child nodes, this property returns NULL.

Syntax

Tips and Notes

Note: Firefox and most other browsers will treat spaces or newlines between nodes as text nodes, while Internet Explorer will ignore whitespace text nodes generated between nodes. Therefore, in the following example, we will use a function to check the node type of the first child node.

The node type for an element node is 1. So, if the first child node is not an element node, it will move to the next node and continue checking if it is an element node. This process will continue until the first element child node is found. By using this method, we can get the correct result in all browsers.

Tip: For more information about browser differences, visit our DOM Browsers section in our XML DOM tutorial.

Example

The following code snippet uses loadXMLDoc() to load "books.xml" into xmlDoc and retrieves the first child node:

Example

// Get the first child node
function get_firstchild(n)
{
  x = n.firstChild;
  while (x.nodeType != 1)
  {
    x = x.nextSibling;
  }
  return x;
}

xmlDoc = loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x = xmlDoc.documentElement;
firstNode = get_firstchild(x);

for (i = 0; i < firstNode.childNodes.length; i++)
{ 
  if (firstNode.childNodes[i].nodeType == 1)
  { 
    // Output node element and value
    document.write(firstNode.childNodes[i].nodeName);
    document.write(" = ");
    document.write(firstNode.childNodes[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue);
    document.write("<br>");
  } 
}

The above code will output:

title = Everyday Italian
author = Giada De Laurentiis
year = 2005
price = 30.00
❮ Dom Prop Node Nextsibling Met Element Getattributenodens ❯