HTML DOM Element previousElementSibling

Return the HTML content of the previous sibling:

let text = element.previousElementSibling.innerHTML;

Description

The previousElementSibling property returns the previous element in the same tree level.

The previousElementSibling property is read-only.

In the HTML DOM terminology:

Nodes are all nodes (element nodes, text nodes, and comment nodes).

Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.

Elements are only element nodes.

Siblings are "brothers" and "sisters".

Siblings are nodes with the same parent (in the same childNodes list).

Element Siblings are elements with the same parent (in the same children list).

childNodes returns child nodes (element nodes, text nodes, and comment nodes).

children returns child elements (not text and comment nodes).

nextSibling returns the next node (an element node, a text node or a comment node). Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.

nextElementSibling returns the next element (not text and comment nodes).

previousSibling returns the previous node (an element node, a text node or a comment node). Whitespace between elements are also text nodes.

previousElementSibling returns the previous element (not text and comment nodes).

element.previousElementSibling

Type	Description
Element	The previous sibling element. `null` if no previous sibling exists.

element.previousElementSibling is a DOM Level 3 (2004) feature.

It is fully supported in all modern browsers:


Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Safari	Opera	IE
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	11