index.md

title	short-title	slug	page-type	browser-compat
NodeIterator: previousNode() method	previousNode()	Web/API/NodeIterator/previousNode	web-api-instance-method	api.NodeIterator.previousNode

{{APIRef("DOM")}}

The NodeIterator.previousNode() method returns the previous node in the set represented by the {{domxref("NodeIterator")}} and moves the position of the iterator backwards within the set.

This method returns null when the current node is the first node in the set.

In old browsers, as specified in old versions of the specifications, the method may throws the INVALID_STATE_ERR {{domxref("DOMException")}} if this method is called after the {{domxref("NodeIterator.detach()")}}method. Recent browsers never throw.

Syntax

previousNode()

Parameters

None.

Return value

A {{domxref("Node")}} representing the node before the current node in the set represented by this NodeIterator, or null if the current node is the first node in the set.

Examples

const nodeIterator = document.createNodeIterator(
  document.body,
  NodeFilter.SHOW_ELEMENT,
  {
    acceptNode(node) {
      return NodeFilter.FILTER_ACCEPT;
    },
  },
);
currentNode = nodeIterator.nextNode(); // returns the next node
previousNode = nodeIterator.previousNode(); // same result, since we backtracked to the previous node

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• The interface it belongs to: {{domxref("NodeIterator")}}.