Element vs Node

Introduction

You can traverse the DOM using either Element properties (elements only) or Node properties (includes text, comments). Element properties are preferred.

Node Traversal

// Node traversal (includes text nodes, comments)
element.parentNode;
element.childNodes;     // Includes text nodes (whitespace!)
element.firstChild;
element.lastChild;
element.previousSibling;
element.nextSibling;

Element Traversal (Preferred)

// Element traversal (elements only) ← PREFERRED
element.parentElement;
element.children;       // Elements only (no text nodes)
element.firstElementChild;
element.lastElementChild;
element.previousElementSibling;
element.nextElementSibling;

Why Element Traversal is Better

<div>
  <p>First</p>
  <p>Second</p>
</div>

const div = document.querySelector('div');

// Node — includes text nodes (whitespace between tags)
console.log(div.childNodes.length); // 5: text, p, text, p, text

// Element — elements only
console.log(div.children.length);   // 2: p, p (clean!)

Summary

Node traversal includes text and comment nodes (messy)
Element traversal returns elements only (clean)
Always prefer Element properties for most use cases
children vs childNodes is the most common distinction

Element vs Node

Element vs Node

Introduction

Node Traversal

Element Traversal (Preferred)

Why Element Traversal is Better

Summary

Further Reading