Loop through childNodes

Question

The variable children is a NodeList instance and NodeLists are not true Array and therefore they do not inherit the forEach method.

Also some browsers actually support it nodeList.forEach

ES5

You can use slice from Array to convert the NodeList into a proper Array.

var array = Array.prototype.slice.call(children);

You could also simply use call to invoke forEach and pass it the NodeList as context.

[].forEach.call(children, function(child) {});

ES6

You can use the from method to convert your NodeList into an Array.

var array = Array.from(children);

Or you can also use the spread syntax ... like so

let array = [ ...children ];

A hack that can be used is NodeList.prototype.forEach = Array.prototype.forEach and you can then use forEach with any NodeList without having to convert them each time.

NodeList.prototype.forEach = Array.prototype.forEach
var children = element.childNodes;
children.forEach(function(item){
    console.log(item);
});

See A comprehensive dive into NodeLists, Arrays, converting NodeLists and understanding the DOM for a good explanation and other ways to do it.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply