The Node.parentElement read-only property returns the DOM node's parent Element, or null if the node either has no parent, or its parent isn't a DOM Element.
Syntax
parentElement = node.parentElement
parentElement is the parent element of the current node. This is always a DOM Element object, or null.
Example
if (node.parentElement) {
node.parentElement.style.color = "red";
}
Specifications
| Specification | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| DOM The definition of ' parentElement' in that specification. |
Living Standard | Initial definition. |
Browser compatibility
On some browsers, the parentElement property is only defined on nodes that are themselves an Element. In particular, it is not defined on text nodes.
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
| Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
parentElement | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 9 | IE
Full support
9
| Opera Full support 7 | Safari Full support 1.1 | WebView Android Full support 1 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Firefox Android Full support 9 | Opera Android Full support 10.1 | Safari iOS Full support 1 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- See implementation notes.
- See implementation notes.
