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Document: body property

The Document.body property represents the <body> or <frameset> node of the current document, or null if no such element exists.

Value

One of the following:

Examples

js

// Given this HTML: <body id="oldBodyElement"></body>
alert(document.body.id); // "oldBodyElement"

const aNewBodyElement = document.createElement("body");

aNewBodyElement.id = "newBodyElement";
document.body = aNewBodyElement;
alert(document.body.id); // "newBodyElement"

Notes

document.body is the element that contains the content for the document. In documents with <body> contents, returns the <body> element, and in frameset documents, this returns the outermost <frameset> element.

Though the body property is settable, setting a new body on a document will effectively remove all the current children of the existing <body> element.

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
body 1 12 60
1–60Only supported for HTMLDocument, not all Document objects.
4 9.6 1 4.4 18 60
4–60Only supported for HTMLDocument, not all Document objects.
10.1 1 1.0

See also

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/body