HTML DOM Element firstElementChild
Examples
Get the HTML content of the first child element:
let text = element.firstElementChild.innerHTML;
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Get the tag name of the first child element of "myDIV":
let text = document.getElementById("myDIV").firstElementChild.tagName;
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Get the text of the first child element of a <select> element:
let text = document.getElementById("mySelect").firstElementChild.text;
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Description
The firstElementChild property returns the first child element of the specified
element.
The firstElementChild property is read-only.
The firstElementChild property returns the same as children[0].
See Also:
Nodes vs Elements
In the HTML DOM terminology:
Nodes are all nodes (element nodes, text nodes, and comment nodes).
Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.
Elements are only element nodes.
childNodes vs children
childNodes returns child nodes (element nodes, text nodes, and comment nodes).
children returns child elements (not text and comment nodes).
firstChild vs firstElementChild
firstChild returns the first child node (an element node, a text node or a comment node). Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.
firstElementChild returns the first child element (not text and comment nodes).
lastChild vs lastElementChild
lastChild returns the last child node (an element node, a text node or a comment node). Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.
lastElementChild returns the last child element (not text and comment nodes).
Syntax
element.firstElementChild
Return Value
| Type | Description |
| Node | The first child element of an element.nullif no child element exists. |
Browser Support
element.firstElementChild is a DOM Level 3 (2004) feature.
It is fully supported in all modern browsers:
| Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Safari | Opera | IE |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 11 |