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Element: firstElementChild property

The Element.firstElementChild read-only property returns an element's first child Element, or null if there are no child elements.

Element.firstElementChild includes only element nodes. To get all child nodes, including non-element nodes like text and comment nodes, use Node.firstChild.

Value

An Element object, or null.

Examples

html

<ul id="list">
  <li>First (1)</li>
  <li>Second (2)</li>
  <li>Third (3)</li>
</ul>

<script>
  const list = document.getElementById("list");
  console.log(list.firstElementChild.textContent);
  // logs "First (1)"
</script>

Specifications

Specification
DOM Standard
# ref-for-dom-parentnode-firstelementchild①

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
firstElementChild 2 12 3.5 9 10 4 ≤37 18 4 10.1 3 1.0

See also

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https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/firstElementChild