HTML DOM previousSibling Property

Element Object Reference Element Object

Example

Get the HTML content of the previous sibling of a list item:

var x = document.getElementById("item2").previousSibling.innerHTML;

The result of x will be:

Coffee (first li)

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Definition and Usage

The previousSibling property returns the previous node of the specified node, in the same tree level.

The returned node is returned as a Node object.

The difference between this property and previousElementSibling, is that previousSibling returns the previous sibling node as an element node, a text node or a comment node, while previousElementSibling returns the previous sibling node as an element node (ignores text and comment nodes).

This property is read-only.

Tip: Use the nextSibling property to return the next node of the specified node, in the same tree level.

Tip: Use the childNodes property to return any child node of a specified node.

Browser Support

Property
previousSibling	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Syntax

node.previousSibling

Technical Details

Return Value:	A Node object, representing the previous sibling of the node, or null if there is no previous sibling
DOM Version	Core Level 1 Node Object

HTML DOM reference: node.childNodes Property

HTML DOM reference: node.firstChild Property

HTML DOM reference: node.lastChild Property

HTML DOM reference: node.parentNode Property

HTML DOM reference: node.nextSibling Property

HTML DOM reference: node.nodeName Property

Element Object Reference Element Object