Element: insertAdjacentText() method

{{APIRef("DOM")}}

The insertAdjacentText() method of the {{domxref("Element")}} interface, given a relative position and a string, inserts a new text node at the given position relative to the element it is called from.

Syntax

insertAdjacentText(where, data)

Parameters

• where

  • : A string representing the position relative to the element the method is called from; must be one of the following strings:
    • 'beforebegin': Before the element itself.
    • 'afterbegin': Just inside the element, before its first child.
    • 'beforeend': Just inside the element, after its last child.
    • 'afterend': After the element itself.

• data

  • : A string from which to create a new text node to insert at the given position where relative to the element the method is called from.

Return value

None ({{jsxref("undefined")}}).

Exceptions

• SyntaxError {{domxref("DOMException")}}
  • : Thrown if where is not a recognized value.

Visualization of position names

<!-- beforebegin -->
<p>
  <!-- afterbegin -->
  foo
  <!-- beforeend -->
</p>
<!-- afterend -->

[!NOTE] The beforebegin and afterend positions work only if the node is in a tree and has an element parent.

Examples

beforeBtn.addEventListener("click", () => {
  para.insertAdjacentText("afterbegin", textInput.value);
});

afterBtn.addEventListener("click", () => {
  para.insertAdjacentText("beforeend", textInput.value);
});

Have a look at our insertAdjacentText.html demo on GitHub (see the source code too.) Here we have a simple paragraph. You can enter some text into the form element, then press the Insert before and Insert after buttons to insert it before or after the existing paragraph text using insertAdjacentText(). Note that the existing text node is not added to — further text nodes are created containing the new additions.

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• {{domxref("Element.insertAdjacentElement()")}}
• {{domxref("Element.insertAdjacentHTML()")}}