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ProcessingInstruction

files/en-us/web/api/processinginstruction/index.md

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{{APIRef("DOM")}}

The ProcessingInstruction interface represents a processing instruction; that is, a {{domxref("Node")}} which embeds an instruction targeting a specific application but that can be ignored by any other applications which don't recognize the instruction.

[!WARNING] ProcessingInstruction nodes are only supported in XML documents, not in HTML documents. In these, a process instruction will be considered as a comment and be represented as a {{domxref("Comment")}} object in the tree.

A processing instruction may be different than the XML declaration.

[!NOTE] User-defined processing instructions cannot begin with "xml", as xml-prefixed processing-instruction target names are reserved by the XML specification for particular, standard uses (see, for example, <?xml-stylesheet ?>.

For example:

html
<?xml version="1.0"?>

is a processing instruction whose target is xml.

{{InheritanceDiagram}}

Instance properties

This interface also inherits properties from its parent interfaces, {{domxref("CharacterData")}}, {{domxref("Node")}}, and {{domxref("EventTarget")}}.

  • {{domxref("ProcessingInstruction.sheet")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}

    • : Returns the associated {{domxref("StyleSheet")}} object, if any; or null if none.

  • {{domxref("ProcessingInstruction.target")}} {{ReadOnlyInline}}

    • : A name identifying the application to which the instruction is targeted.

Instance methods

This interface doesn't have any specific method, but inherits methods from its parent interfaces, {{domxref("CharacterData")}}, {{domxref("Node")}}, and {{domxref("EventTarget")}}.

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also