December 22, 2000 - The Document's Root Node

Yehuda Shiran December 22, 2000
The Document's Root Node
Tips: December 2000

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

The document object is the root node of the document DOM tree. But this node is treated differently in Netscape 6 and Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer does not support any DOM properties of the document object. You will get undefined as a response for such queries. All inquiries should be directed at document.documentElement instead. Its nodeName is HTML, and its nodeType is 1 (a tag). Netscape 6, on the other hand, supports the DOM properties of the document object. If you try to query document.nodeName, you will get #document. Its node type will be 9. In fact, its only child is the HTML tag node. Try printing its nodeName. Internet Explorer does not support this direct relationship between the document object and the HTML tag.

The code in this tip can be viewed only by Netscape 6.

Learn more about the DOM in Columns 40, The DOM, Part I: Analysis, through Column 47, A DOM-Based Snakes Game, Part II.