Document.body

The Document.body property represents the <body> or <frameset> node of the current document, or null if no such element exists.

Syntax

const objRef = document.body
document.body = objRef

Example

// Given this HTML: <body id="oldBodyElement"></body>
alert(document.body.id); // "oldBodyElement"

const aNewBodyElement = document.createElement("body");

aNewBodyElement.id = "newBodyElement";
document.body = aNewBodyElement;
alert(document.body.id); // "newBodyElement"

Notes

document.body is the element that contains the content for the document. In documents with <body> contents, returns the <body> element, and in frameset documents, this returns the outermost <frameset> element.

Though the body property is settable, setting a new body on a document will effectively remove all the current children of the existing <body> element.

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard (HTML) # dom-document-body-dev

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
`body`	1	12	60 1-60 Only supported for `HTMLDocument`, not all `Document` objects.	4	9.6	1	1	18	60 4-60 Only supported for `HTMLDocument`, not all `Document` objects.	10.1	1	1.0