Node: nodeName property

The read-only nodeName property of Node returns the name of the current node as a string.

Value

A string. Values for the different types of nodes are:

• Attr
  • : The value of Attr.name, that is the qualified name of the attribute.
• CDATASection
  • : The string "#cdata-section".
• Comment
  • : The string "#comment".
• Document
  • : The string "#document".
• DocumentFragment
  • : The string "#document-fragment".
• DocumentType
  • : The value of DocumentType.name
• Element
  • : The value of Element.tagName, that is the uppercase name of the element tag if an HTML element, or the lowercase element tag if an XML element (like an SVG or MathML element).
• ProcessingInstruction
  • : The value of ProcessingInstruction.target
• Text
  • : The string "#text".

Example

This example displays the node names of several nodes

This is some HTML:
<div id="d1">Hello world</div>
<!-- Example of comment -->
Text <span>Text</span> Text<br />
<svg height="20" width="20">
  <circle cx="10" cy="10" r="5" stroke="black" stroke-width="1" fill="red" />
</svg>
<hr />
<output id="result">Not calculated yet.</output>

and the following script:

let node = document.querySelector("body").firstChild;
let result = "Node names are:\n";
while (node) {
  result += `${node.nodeName}\n`;
  node = node.nextSibling;
}

const output = document.getElementById("result");
output.innerText = result;

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Element.tagName
• Attr.name
• DocumentType.name
• ProcessingInstruction.target