Node.parentNode

The Node.parentNode read-only property returns the parent of the specified node in the DOM tree.

Syntax

parentNode = node.parentNode

parentNode is the parent of the current node. The parent of an element is an Element node, a Document node, or a DocumentFragment node.

Example

if (node.parentNode) {
  // remove a node from the tree, unless 
  // it's not in the tree already
  node.parentNode.removeChild(node);
}

Notes

Document and DocumentFragment nodes can never have a parent, so parentNode will always return null.

It also returns null if the node has just been created and is not yet attached to the tree.

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

Specification

• DOM Level 2 Core: Node.parentNode
• DOM Level 3 Core: Node.parentNode

See also

• Node.firstChild
• Node.lastChild
• Node.childNodes
• Node.nextSibling
• Node.parentElement
• Node.previousSibling
• Node.removeChild