parentNode Property

Retrieves the parent object in the document hierarchy.

What's New for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6

This property now applies to the attribute object.

Syntax

HTML N/A
Scripting [ oElement = ] object.parentNode

Possible Values

oElement Object that receives the parent node.
The property is read-only. The property has no default value.

Remarks

The topmost object returns null as its parent.

Examples

This example assigns the parentNode of a span object to a variable.
<SCRIPT>
var oParent = oSpan.parentNode;
</SCRIPt>
:
<BODY>
<SPAN ID=oSpan>A Span</SPAN>
</BODY>
This example assigns the parentNode of a node, created with the createElement method, to a variable.
var oNode = document.createElement("B");
document.body.insertBefore(oNode);
var sType = oNode.parentNodes;

Standards Information

This property is defined in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 .

Applies To

A, ACRONYM, ADDRESS, APPLET, AREA, attribute, B, BASE, BASEFONT, BDO, BGSOUND, BIG, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, BR, BUTTON, CAPTION, CENTER, CITE, CODE, COL, COLGROUP, COMMENT, DD, DEL, DFN, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, EM, EMBED, FIELDSET, FONT, FORM, FRAME, FRAMESET, HEAD, hn, HR, HTML, I, IFRAME, IMG, INPUT type=button, INPUT type=checkbox, INPUT type=file, INPUT type=hidden, INPUT type=image, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=radio, INPUT type=reset, INPUT type=submit, INPUT type=text, INS, KBD, LABEL, LEGEND, LI, LINK, LISTING, MAP, MARQUEE, MENU, nextID, OBJECT, OL, OPTION, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, Q, S, SAMP, SCRIPT, SELECT, SMALL, SPAN, STRIKE, STRONG, SUB, SUP, TABLE, TBODY, TD, TEXTAREA, TextNode, TFOOT, TH, THEAD, TITLE, TR, TT, U, UL, VAR, XMP

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parentNode Property