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HTML DOM firstElementChild Property

Element Object

Example

Get the first child element of a <ul> element in HTML:

var x = document.getElementById("myList").firstElementChild.innerHTML;

Definition and Usage

The firstElementChild property returns the first child element of the specified element.

The firstElementChild property is different from the firstChild property in that firstChild returns the first child node as an element node, which may include text nodes or comment nodes (depending on which is first), while firstElementChild returns the first child node as an element node (ignoring text and comment nodes).

This property is read-only.

Tip: Use the children property to return any child elements of the specified element.

Tip: To return the last child element of the specified element, use the lastElementChild property.


Browser Support

Property Chrome IE Firefox Safari Opera
firstElementChild 2.0 9.0 3.5 4.0 10.0

Syntax

element.firstElementChild

Parameters

None

Return Value

Type Description
Object Returns a Node object representing the first child element, or null if there are no child elements

Technical Details

| DOM Version | Core Level 3 Element Traversal | | --- | --- |


More Examples

Example

Get the tag name of the first child element of a <div> element:

var x = document.getElementById("myDIV").firstElementChild.tagName;
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = x;

Example

Get the text of the first child element of a <select> element:

var x = document.getElementById("mySelect").firstElementChild.text;

Element Object

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