How to get previous element in the DOM?

Question

Lets say I've got something like this:

<div class='item'>some code</div>
<div class='item current'>some code</div>
<div class='item'>some code</div>

The next element I can get by document.querySelector(".item.current + .item"). That's great and works fine but.. How can I get to the previous element?

Here's your answer: [Is there a “previous sibling” CSS selector?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1817792/is-there-a-previous-sibling-css-selector) — german meza, Nov 21 '16 at 23:57

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 21 '16 at 23:59

8

You can get the previous element "sibling" with the previousElementSibling property. For example

document.querySelector('.item.current').previousElementSibling

Would return the first element, <div class="item"></div>

answered Nov 21 '16 at 23:59

hackerrdave

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score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 10 '21 at 12:19

4

document.querySelector(".item.current").previousElementSibling

edited Feb 10 '21 at 12:19

dippas

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answered Nov 21 '16 at 23:57

Stefan Haustein

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 10 '21 at 18:15

0

You can just do document.querySelector(".item.current").previousElementSibling.

edited Feb 10 '21 at 18:15

Lakshya Thakur

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answered Nov 21 '16 at 23:58

onemanclapping

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

0

There is no "previous sibling" selector that you can use directly.

You can use javascript to select it using document.querySelector(".item.current").previousElementSibling

edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

Community

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answered Nov 21 '16 at 23:58

hughes

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How to get previous element in the DOM?

4 Answers4