Document.documentElement

Document.documentElement returns the Element that is the root element of the document (for example, the <html> element for HTML documents).

Syntax

const element = document.documentElement

Example

const rootElement = document.documentElement;
const firstTier = rootElement.childNodes;
// firstTier is a NodeList of the direct children of the root element
// such as <head> and <body>

for (const child of firstTier) {
   // do something with each direct child of the root element
}

Notes

For any non-empty HTML document, documentElement will always be an <html> element. For any non-empty XML document, documentElement will always be whatever element is the root element of the document.

Specifications

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
documentElement
1
12
1
5
7
1
1
18
4
10.1
1
1.0

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/documentElement