closest

Return the closest element matching a selector up the DOM tree

closest is a polyfill for #Element.closest.

The #Element.closest method returns the closest ancestor of the current element (or the current element itself) which matches the selectors given in parameter. If there isn't such an ancestor, it returns null.

element.closest(selectorString) //=> element

This is especially useful for delegating events.

document.addEventListener('click', function (event) {
	// find nearest element up the tree that is an <a>
	var link = event.target.closest('a');

	if (link) {
		// do something with the <a>
		event.preventDefault();
	}
});

matches

The also polyfills #Element.matches, which is widely supported but often vendor-prefixed.

element.matches(selectorString) //=> boolean

matches is especially useful for short-handing hasAttribute or classList.contains with selectors.

var widget = document.querySelector('.custom-widget');

if (widget.matches('[data-active]') || widget.matches('.widget--active')) {
	// do something with the active widget
}

Browser compatibility

Browser	Native Support	Polyfill Support
Android	53	2.2+
Blackberry	✘	7+
Chrome	41+	4 - 40
Edge	✘	12+
Firefox	35+	3.5 - 34
Internet Explorer	✘	8+
Opera	28+	10 - 27
Opera Mobile	37+	12+
Safari (iOS)	9.2+	3.2 - 8.4
Safari (MacOS)	9.1+	3.1 - 8

Internet Explorer 8

closest is especially useful for delegating events, but remember that Internet Explorer 8 does not support #Element.addEventListener.