Creates a new empty DocumentFragment
into which DOM nodes can be added to build an offscreen DOM tree.
Syntax
var fragment = document.createDocumentFragment();
Value
A newly created, empty, DocumentFragment
object, which is ready to have nodes inserted into it.
Usage notes
DocumentFragment
s are DOM Node
objects which are never part of the main DOM tree. The usual use case is to create the document fragment, append elements to the document fragment and then append the document fragment to the DOM tree. In the DOM tree, the document fragment is replaced by all its children.
Since the document fragment is in memory and not part of the main DOM tree, appending children to it does not cause page reflow (computation of element's position and geometry). Historically, using document fragments could result in better performance.
You can also use the DocumentFragment
constructor to create a new fragment:
let fragment = new DocumentFragment();
Example
This example creates a list of major web browsers in a DocumentFragment
, then adds the new DOM subtree to the document to be displayed.
HTML
<ul id="ul"> </ul>
JavaScript
var element = document.getElementById('ul'); // assuming ul exists var fragment = document.createDocumentFragment(); var browsers = ['Firefox', 'Chrome', 'Opera', 'Safari', 'Internet Explorer']; browsers.forEach(function(browser) { var li = document.createElement('li'); li.textContent = browser; fragment.appendChild(li); }); element.appendChild(fragment);
Result
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
DOM The definition of 'Document.createDocumentFragment()' in that specification. |
Living Standard | Initial definition in the DOM 1 specification. |
Browser compatibility
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
createDocumentFragment | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support Yes | IE Full support Yes | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support Yes | WebView Android Full support Yes | Chrome Android Full support Yes | Firefox Android Full support Yes | Opera Android Full support Yes | Safari iOS Full support Yes | Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support