HTML DOM Element innerText

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Example

Get the inner text of an element:

let text = element.innerText;
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More examples below.

Description

The innerText property sets or returns the text content of an element.

Note

When you set the innerText property, all child nodes are removed and replaced by only one new text node.

See Also:

The textContent Property

The innerHTML Property

The Differences Between
innerHTML, innerText and textContent

See below

Syntax

Return the text content of an element or node:

element.innerText
or
node.innerText

Set the text content of an element or node:

element.innerText = text
or
node.innerText = text

Property Value

Property Description
text The text content of the element.

Return Value

Type Description
StringThe text content of the element and all descendants, except for <script> and <style> elements.

The Differences Between
innerHTML, innerText and textContent

The innerHTML property returns:
The text content of the element, including all spacing and inner HTML tags.
The innerText property returns:
Just the text content of the element and all its children, without CSS hidden text spacing and tags, except <script> and <style> elements.
The textContent property returns:
The text content of the element and all descendaces, with spacing and CSS hidden text, but without tags.

HTML Example

<p id="myP">   This element has extra spacing     and contains <span>a span element</span>.</p>

JavaScript Examples

let text = document.getElementById("myP").innerText;

let text = document.getElementById("myP").innerHTML;

let text = document.getElementById("demo").textContent;
Try it Yourself »

In the example above:

The innerText property returns:
This element has extra spacing and contains a span element.
The innerHTML property returns:
   This element has extra spacing    and contains <span>a span element</span>.
The textContent property returns:
   This element has extra spacing    and contains a span element.

Browser Support

element.innerText is supported in all browsers:

Chrome IE Edge Firefox Safari Opera
Yes 10-11 Yes Yes Yes Yes
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