HTML DOM Element previousElementSibling
Example
Return the HTML content of the previous sibling:
let text = element.previousElementSibling.innerHTML;
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Description
The previousElementSibling property returns the previous element in the same tree level.
The previousElementSibling property is read-only.
See Also:
Nodes vs Elements
In the HTML DOM terminology:
Nodes are all nodes (element nodes, text nodes, and comment nodes).
Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.
Elements are only element nodes.
Siblings vs Element Siblings
Siblings are "brothers" and "sisters".
Siblings are nodes with the same parent (in the same childNodes list).
Element Siblings are elements with the same parent (in the same children list).
childNodes vs children
childNodes returns child nodes (element nodes, text nodes, and comment nodes).
children returns child elements (not text and comment nodes).
nextSibling vs nextElementSibling
nextSibling returns the next node (an element node, a text node or a comment node). Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.
nextElementSibling returns the next element (not text and comment nodes).
previousSibling vs previousElementSibling
previousSibling returns the previous node (an element node, a text node or a comment node). Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.
previousElementSibling returns the previous element (not text and comment nodes).
Syntax
element.previousElementSibling
Return Value
| Type | Description |
| Element | The previous sibling element.null if no previous sibling exists. |
Browser Support
element.previousElementSibling is a DOM Level 3 (2004) feature.
It is fully supported in all modern browsers:
| Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Safari | Opera | IE |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 11 |