Node: removeChild() method

{{APIRef("DOM")}}

The removeChild() method of the {{domxref("Node")}} interface removes a child node from the DOM and returns the removed node.

[!NOTE] As long as a reference is kept on the removed child, it still exists in memory, but is no longer part of the DOM. It can still be reused later in the code.

If the return value of removeChild() is not stored, and no other reference is kept, it will be automatically deleted from memory after a short time.

Unlike {{domxref("Node.cloneNode()")}} the return value preserves the EventListener objects associated with it.

Syntax

removeChild(child)

Parameters

• child
  • : A {{domxref("Node")}} that is the child node to be removed from the DOM.

Return value

The removed child node.

Exceptions

• NotFoundError {{domxref("DOMException")}}
  • : Thrown if the child is not a child of the node.
• {{jsxref("TypeError")}}
  • : Thrown if the child is null.

Examples

Simple examples

Given this HTML:

<div id="parent">
  <div id="child"></div>
</div>

To remove a specified element when knowing its parent node:

const parent = document.getElementById("parent");
const child = document.getElementById("child");
const throwawayNode = parent.removeChild(child);

To remove a specified element without having to specify its parent node:

const node = document.getElementById("child");
if (node.parentNode) {
  node.parentNode.removeChild(node);
}

To remove all children from an element:

const element = document.getElementById("idOfParent");
while (element.firstChild) {
  element.removeChild(element.firstChild);
}

Causing a TypeError

<!--Sample HTML code-->
<div id="parent"></div>

const parent = document.getElementById("parent");
const child = document.getElementById("child");

// Throws Uncaught TypeError
const garbage = parent.removeChild(child);

Causing a NotFoundError

<!--Sample HTML code-->
<div id="parent">
  <div id="child"></div>
</div>

const parent = document.getElementById("parent");
const child = document.getElementById("child");

// This first call correctly removes the node
const garbage = parent.removeChild(child);

// Second call throws NotFoundError
parent.removeChild(child);

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• {{domxref("Node.replaceChild()")}}
• {{domxref("Node.parentNode")}}
• {{domxref("Element.remove()")}}
• {{domxref("Node.cloneNode()")}}