W3cubDocs

/DOM

document.body

Returns the <body> or <frameset> node of the current document, or null if no such element exists.

Syntax

var objRef = document.body; 
document.body = objRef;

Example

// in HTML: <body id="oldBodyElement"></body>
alert(document.body.id); // "oldBodyElement"

var aNewBodyElement = document.createElement("body");

aNewBodyElement.id = "newBodyElement";
document.body = aNewBodyElement;
alert(document.body.id); // "newBodyElement"

Notes

document.body is the element that contains the content for the document. In documents with <body> contents, returns the <body> element, and in frameset documents, this returns the outermost <frameset> element.

Though body is settable, setting a new body on a document will effectively remove all the current children of the existing <body> element.

Specification

Specification	Status	Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5.1 The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.	Recommendation
HTML5 The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.	Recommendation
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.	Recommendation
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification The definition of 'Document.body' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Feature	Chrome	Edge	Firefox (Gecko)	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	26 (probably much earlier)	(Yes)	2	6	9.6 (possibly earlier)	4 (possibly earlier)