W3cubDocs

/Web APIs

Element: previousElementSibling property

The Element.previousElementSibling read-only property returns the Element immediately prior to the specified one in its parent's children list, or null if the specified element is the first one in the list.

Value

An Element object, or null.

Examples

html

<div id="div-01">Here is div-01</div>
<div id="div-02">Here is div-02</div>
<li>This is a list item</li>
<li>This is another list item</li>
<div id="div-03">Here is div-03</div>

<script>
  let el = document.getElementById("div-03").previousElementSibling;
  document.write("<p>Siblings of div-03</p><ol>");
  while (el) {
    document.write("<li>" + el.nodeName + "</li>");
    el = el.previousElementSibling;
  }
  document.write("</ol>");
</script>

This example outputs the following into the page when it loads:

Siblings of div-03

   1. LI
   2. LI
   3. DIV
   4. DIV

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

See also

© 2005–2023 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/previousElementSibling