Node.parentElement

JavaScript’s Node.parentElement read-only property returns the Node’s parent element or null if the Node does not have a parent element.

Value

An Element object or null if the node does not have a parent element.

Examples

Here is an example of using the parentElement property.

Suppose we have the following elements:

<div>
 <p>You can do wonderful things with JavaScript.</p>
</div>

How can we change the background color of the parent element of the p element with JavaScript?

Well, we can select the p element with the querySelector() method and use the parentElement and style properties:

let p = document.querySelector('p');
p.parentElement.style.backgroundColor = 'orange';

The HTMLElement.style property returns a CSSStyleDeclaration object containing the inline style of an element. The style can be modified by setting the object’s properties.

Browser compatibility