Insert sibling node in JS

Question

So I have a div with some pre tags in it, like so:

<div id="editor" >
    <pre contentEditable="true">1</pre>
    <pre contentEditable="true">2</pre>
    <pre contentEditable="true">3</pre>
</div>

Now I want to use Javascript to put a new pre node between 1 and 2. I've been trying to do it this way (since I understand the DOM is a doubly linked tree), but I'm getting the sense that maybe the pointers aren't editable as I'm approaching it.

(just a snippet inside an event handler, e being the event)

var tag = e.srcElement;
    if(tag.nextSibling){
        var next = tag.nextSibling;
        var newPre = document.createElement('pre');
        newPre.setAttribute("contentEditable", "true");
        newPre.innerHTML = "boom";
        tag.nextSibling = newPre;
        newPre.nextSibling = next;
    }

Those last two lines are from my c++ experience, but feel icky in JS. How would I set a new sibling node?

Minko Gechev · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-07 18:26:07Z

51

Here is how I would do that:

JS

var container = document.getElementById('editor'),
    firstChild = container.childNodes[1];
if (container && firstChild) {
    var newPre = document.createElement('pre');
    newPre.setAttribute("contentEditable", "true");
    newPre.innerHTML = "boom";  
    firstChild.parentNode.insertBefore(newPre, firstChild.nextSibling);    
}

jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/bZGEZ/

answered Jan 7, 2012 at 18:26

Minko Gechev

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1 Comment

user5779136 Over a year ago

Possible improvements: 1) use 'children' (only elements) instead of 'childNodes' (elements and text nodes); 2) check container's children in 'if': container can be null; 3) use native HTMLElement 'contentEditable' property instead of setAttribute; 4) use 'textContent' instead of 'innerHTML' if you don't require parsing value as HTML (as in this case); 5) use simpler DOM attach methods 'after' and 'before' (most browsers except IE11 support them).

Kevin Farrugia · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-19 06:24:14Z

34

You could also insert a new sibling using insertAdjacentElement or insertAdjacentHTML; both of which take the options beforebegin, beforeend, afterbegin and afterend.

Example:

var container = document.getElementById('editor'),
firstChild = container.childNodes[1];

var newPre = document.createElement('pre');
newPre.setAttribute("contentEditable", "true");
newPre.innerHTML = "boom";  
firstChild.insertAdjacentElement("afterend", newPre);

answered Apr 19, 2017 at 6:24

Kevin Farrugia

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1 Comment

Marcus Parsons Over a year ago

I've been programming for years, and this is the first time I've heard of insertAdjacentElement, and it is absolutely magnificent! Thank you!

Eduardo Rocha · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-19 19:41:19Z

0

There's also the Element.after() method. The benefit of this method over the other methods is that it allows you to add multiple nodes at the same time.

const container = document.getElementById('editor');
const firstChild = container.childNodes[1];

const newPre1 = document.createElement('pre');
newPre1.setAttribute('contentEditable', 'true');
newPre1.innerHTML = 'foo';

const newPre2 = document.createElement('pre');
newPre2.setAttribute('contentEditable', 'true');
newPre2.innerHTML = 'bar';

firstChild.after(newPre1, newPre2);

answered Mar 19 at 19:41

Eduardo Rocha

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