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Element: insertAdjacentElement() method

The insertAdjacentElement() method of the Element interface inserts a given element node at a given position relative to the element it is invoked upon.

Syntax

js

insertAdjacentElement(position, element)

Parameters

position

A string representing the position relative to the targetElement; must match (case-insensitively) one of the following strings:

  • 'beforebegin': Before the targetElement itself.
  • 'afterbegin': Just inside the targetElement, before its first child.
  • 'beforeend': Just inside the targetElement, after its last child.
  • 'afterend': After the targetElement itself.
element

The element to be inserted into the tree.

Return value

The element that was inserted, or null, if the insertion failed.

Exceptions

  • SyntaxError DOMException
    • Thrown if the position specified is not a recognized value.
  • TypeError
    • Thrown if the element specified is not a valid element.

Visualization of position names

html

<!-- beforebegin -->
<p>
  <!-- afterbegin -->
  foo
  <!-- beforeend -->
</p>
<!-- afterend -->

Note: The beforebegin and afterend positions work only if the node is in a tree and has an element parent.

Examples

js

beforeBtn.addEventListener("click", () => {
  const tempDiv = document.createElement("div");
  tempDiv.style.backgroundColor = randomColor();
  if (activeElem) {
    activeElem.insertAdjacentElement("beforebegin", tempDiv);
  }
  setListener(tempDiv);
});

afterBtn.addEventListener("click", () => {
  const tempDiv = document.createElement("div");
  tempDiv.style.backgroundColor = randomColor();
  if (activeElem) {
    activeElem.insertAdjacentElement("afterend", tempDiv);
  }
  setListener(tempDiv);
});

Have a look at our insertAdjacentElement.html demo on GitHub (see the source code too.) Here, we have a sequence of <div> elements inside a container. When one is clicked, it becomes selected and you can then press the Insert before and Insert after buttons to insert new divs before or after the selected element using insertAdjacentElement().

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
insertAdjacentElement 1 17
12–17Only supported for HTMLElement, not all Element objects, such as SVGElement.
48
5Only supported for HTMLElement, not all Element objects, such as SVGElement.
8 3 4.4 18 48 10.1 1 1.0

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/insertAdjacentElement