NonDocumentTypeChildNode.nextElementSibling

The NonDocumentTypeChildNode.nextElementSibling read-only property returns the element immediately following the specified one in its parent's children list, or null if the specified element is the last one in the list.

Syntax

var nextNode = elementNodeReference.nextElementSibling; 

Example

<div id="div-01">Here is div-01</div>
<div id="div-02">Here is div-02</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
  var el = document.getElementById('div-01').nextElementSibling;
  console.log('Siblings of div-01:');
  while (el) {
    console.log(el.nodeName);
    el = el.nextElementSibling;
  }
</script>

This example outputs the following into the console when it loads:

Siblings of div-01:
DIV
SCRIPT

Polyfill for Internet Explorer 8

This property is unsupported prior to IE9, so the following snippet can be used to add support to IE8:

// Source: https://github.com/Alhadis/Snippets/blob/master/js/polyfills/IE8-child-elements.js
if(!("nextElementSibling" in document.documentElement)){
    Object.defineProperty(Element.prototype, "nextElementSibling", {
        get: function(){
            var e = this.nextSibling;
            while(e && 1 !== e.nodeType)
                e = e.nextSibling;
            return e;
        }
    });
}

Polyfill for Internet Explorer 9+ and Safari

// Source: https://github.com/jserz/js_piece/blob/master/DOM/NonDocumentTypeChildNode/nextElementSibling/nextElementSibling.md
(function (arr) {
  arr.forEach(function (item) {
    if (item.hasOwnProperty('nextElementSibling')) {
      return;
    }
    Object.defineProperty(item, 'nextElementSibling', {
      configurable: true,
      enumerable: true,
      get: function () {
        var el = this;
        while (el = el.nextSibling) {
          if (el.nodeType === 1) {
              return el;
          }
        }
        return null;
      },
      set: undefined
    });
  });
})([Element.prototype, CharacterData.prototype]);

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOM The definition of 'ChildNodenextElementSibling' in that specification.	Living Standard	Split the ElementTraversal interface in ChildNode, ParentNode, and NonDocumentTypeChildNode. This method is now defined on the former. The Element and CharacterData interfaces implemented the new interface.
Element Traversal Specification The definition of 'ElementTraversal.nextElementSibling' in that specification.	Recommendation	Added its initial definition to the ElementTraversal pure interface and use it on Element.

Browser compatibility

[1] Firefox 25 also added this property to DocumentType, this was removed in Firefox 28 due to compatibility problems.

See also

• The ChildNode pure interface.
• Object types implementing this pure interface: CharacterData, Element, and DocumentType.