CharacterData: data property

{{APIRef("DOM")}}

The data property of the {{domxref("CharacterData")}} interface represent the value of the current object's data.

Value

A string with the character information contained in the {{domxref("CharacterData")}} node.

When set to the null value, that null value is converted to the empty string (""), so cd.data = null is equivalent to cd.data = "".

Example

[!NOTE] {{domxref("CharacterData")}} is an abstract interface. The examples below use two concrete interfaces implementing it, {{domxref("Text")}} and {{domxref("Comment")}}.

Reading a comment using data

<!-- This is an HTML comment -->
<output id="result"></output>

const comment = document.body.childNodes[1];
const output = document.getElementById("result");

output.value = comment.data;

{{EmbedLiveSample("Reading_a_comment_using_data", "100%", 50)}}

Setting the content of a text node using data

<span>Result: </span>Not set.

const span = document.querySelector("span");
const textNode = span.nextSibling;

textNode.data = "This text has been set using 'textNode.data'.";

{{EmbedLiveSample("Setting_the_content_of_a_text_node_using_data", "100%", 50)}}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• {{domxref("CharacterData.length")}} returning the length of the data contained in the {{domxref("CharacterData")}} node.