Node.previousSibling

The Node.previousSibling read-only property returns the node immediately preceding the specified one in its parent's childNodes list, or 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, using Node.firstChild or Node.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 Node.nextSibling.

Specification

• DOM Level 1 Core: previousSibling
• DOM Level 2 Core: previousSibling
• DOM Level 3 Core: previousSibling

See also

• Node.nextSibling