Node.previousSibling

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Table of contents

  1. 1. Summary
  2. 2. Syntax
  3. 3. Example
  4. 4. Notes
  5. 5. Specification
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« Gecko DOM Reference

Summary

Returns the node immediately preceding the specified one in its parent's childNodes list, null if the specified node is the first in that list.

Syntax 

previousNode = node.previousSibling

Example 

// <a><b1 id="b1"/><b2 id="b2"/></a>
alert(document.getElementById("b1").previousSibling); // null
alert(document.getElementById("b2").previousSibling.id); // "b1"

Notes

Gecko-based browsers insert text nodes into a document to represent whitespace in the source markup. Therefore a node obtained for example via firstChild or previousSibling may refer to a whitespace text node, rather than the actual element the author intended to get.

See Whitespace in the DOM and W3C DOM 3 FAQ: Why are some Text nodes empty? for more information.


To navigate the opposite way through the child nodes list use element.nextSibling.

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