# HTML DOM nodeType Property

Element Object

## Example

Get the node type of the body element:

var x = document.getElementById("myP").nodeType;

The result of x will be:

1
Try it yourself »

More "Try it Yourself" examples below.

## Definition and Usage

The nodeType property returns the node type, as a number, of the specified node.

If the node is an element node, the nodeType property will return 1.

If the node is an attribute node, the nodeType property will return 2.

If the node is a text node, the nodeType property will return 3.

If the node is a comment node, the nodeType property will return 8.

This property is read-only.

## Browser Support

Property |  |  |  |  |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
nodeType | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes

## Syntax

node.nodeType

## Technical Details

Return Value: | A Number, representing the node type of the node
DOM Version | Core Level 1 Node Object

## Node Types

Documents, elements, attributes, and other aspects of an HTML or XML document has different node types.

There are 12 different node types, which may have children of various node types:

Node type | Description | Children
--- | --- | ---
1 | Element | Represents an element | Element, Text, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATASection, EntityReference
2 | Attr | Represents an attribute | Text, EntityReference
3 | Text | Represents textual content in an element or attribute | None
4 | CDATASection | Represents a CDATA section in a document (text that will NOT be parsed by a parser) | None
5 | EntityReference | Represents an entity reference | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, EntityReference
6 | Entity | Represents an entity | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, EntityReference
7 | ProcessingInstruction | Represents a processing instruction | None
8 | Comment | Represents a comment | None
9 | Document | Represents the entire document (the root-node of the DOM tree) | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, DocumentType
10 | DocumentType | Provides an interface to the entities defined for the document | None
11 | DocumentFragment | Represents a "lightweight" Document object, which can hold a portion of a document | Element, ProcessingInstruction, Comment, Text, CDATASection, EntityReference
12 | Notation | Represents a notation declared in the DTD | None

## Node Types - Return Values

The return value of the nodeName and the nodeValue properties for each node type:

Node type | nodeName returns | nodeValue returns
--- | --- | ---
1 | Element | element name | null
2 | Attr | attribute name | attribute value
3 | Text | #text | content of node
4 | CDATASection | #cdata-section | content of node
5 | EntityReference | entity reference name | null
6 | Entity | entity name | null
7 | ProcessingInstruction | target | content of node
8 | Comment | #comment | comment text
9 | Document | #document | null
10 | DocumentType | doctype name | null
11 | DocumentFragment | #document fragment | null
12 | Notation | notation name | null

## NodeTypes - Named Constants

NodeType | Named Constant
--- | ---
1 | ELEMENT_NODE
2 | ATTRIBUTE_NODE
3 | TEXT_NODE
4 | CDATA_SECTION_NODE
5 | ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
6 | ENTITY_NODE
7 | PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE
8 | COMMENT_NODE
9 | DOCUMENT_NODE
10 | DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
11 | DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
12 | NOTATION_NODE

## More Examples

## Example

Get the node type of the <body> element:

var x = document.body.nodeType;

The result of x will be:

1
Try it yourself »

## Example

Get the node types of the <body> element's child nodes:

var c = document.body.childNodes;
var txt = "";
var i;
for (i = 0; i < c.length; i++) {
txt = txt + c[i].nodeType + "<br>";
}
document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = txt;

The result of txt will be:

3 // text node
1 // element node
3 // text node
1 // element node
3 // text node
1 // element node
3 // text node
8 // comment node
3 // text node
1 // element node
3 // text node
1 // element node
3 // text node
1 // element node
3 // text node
Try it yourself »

## Example

Get the node name, node value and the node type of the <div> element's first child node:

<div id="myDIV">This is a div element.</div>
<script>
var x = document.getElementById("myDIV").firstChild;
var txt = "";
txt += "The node name: " + x.nodeName + "<br>";
txt += "The node value: " + x.nodeValue + "<br>";
txt += "The node type: " + x.nodeType;
</script>

The result of txt will be:

The node name: #text
The node value: This is a div element.
The node type: 3
Try it yourself »

## Related Pages

HTML DOM reference: node.nodeName Property

HTML DOM reference: node.nodeValue Property

HTML DOM reference: node.childNodes Property

Element Object

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