Node.ownerDocument

The Node.ownerDocument read-only property returns the top-level document object for this node.

Syntax

document = element.ownerDocument

• document is the document object parent of the current element.

Example

// given a node "p", get the top-level HTML child 
// of the document object

var d = p.ownerDocument; 
var html = d.documentElement;

Notes

The document object returned by this property is the main object with which all the child nodes in the actual HTML document are created. If this property is used on a node that is itself a document, the result is null.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOM4 The definition of 'Node.ownerDocument' in that specification.	Recommendation
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification The definition of 'Node.ownerDocument' in that specification.	Recommendation	No change
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification The definition of 'Node.ownerDocument' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

[1] Starting in Gecko 9.0 (Firefox 9.0 / Thunderbird 9.0 / SeaMonkey 2.6), the ownerDocument of doctype nodes (that is, nodes for which Node.nodeType is Node.DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE or 10) is no longer null. Instead, the ownerDocument is the document on which document.implementation.createDocumentType() was called.

[2] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/ms534315(v=vs.85).aspx