Element: prepend() method

{{APIRef("DOM")}}

The Element.prepend() method inserts a set of {{domxref("Node")}} objects or strings before the first child of the {{domxref("Element")}}. Strings are inserted as equivalent {{domxref("Text")}} nodes.

Syntax

prepend(param1)
prepend(param1, param2)
prepend(param1, param2, /* …, */ paramN)

Parameters

• param1, …, paramN
  • : A set of {{domxref("Node")}} objects or strings to insert.

Return value

None ({{jsxref("undefined")}}).

Exceptions

• HierarchyRequestError {{DOMxRef("DOMException")}}
  • : Thrown when the node cannot be inserted at the specified point in the hierarchy.

Examples

Prepending an element

let div = document.createElement("div");
let p = document.createElement("p");
let span = document.createElement("span");
div.append(p);
div.prepend(span);

console.log(div.childNodes); // NodeList [ <span>, <p> ]

Prepending text

let div = document.createElement("div");
div.append("Some text");
div.prepend("Headline: ");

console.log(div.textContent); // "Headline: Some text"

Prepending an element and text

let div = document.createElement("div");
let p = document.createElement("p");
div.prepend("Some text", p);

console.log(div.childNodes); // NodeList [ #text "Some text", <p> ]

The prepend method is unscopable

The prepend() method is not scoped into the with statement. See {{jsxref("Symbol.unscopables")}} for more information.

let div = document.createElement("div");

with (div) {
  prepend("foo");
}
// ReferenceError: prepend is not defined

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• {{domxref("Element.append()")}}
• {{domxref("Node.appendChild()")}}
• {{domxref("Node.insertBefore()")}}
• {{domxref("Element.before()")}}
• {{domxref("Element.insertAdjacentElement()")}}
• {{domxref("NodeList")}}