Quick Reference
The Element insertBefore() method inserts a child node before an existing child node.
Note
A node can be an HTML element (div, span, p, h2, etc.), or it can be a text node (plain text, white space, a teb, a linebreak). Whereas, when referring just to an element, only the HTML elements are relevant.
<ul id="my_list">
<li>Ferrari</li>
<li>Maserati</li>
</ul>// create a 'li' element
let new_node = document.createElement('li');
// create a text node
let text_node = document.createTextNode('Lamborghini');
// append text node to "li" element
new_node.appendChild(text_node);
// insert before the existing child
let list = document.getElementById('my_list');
list.insertBefore(new_node, list.children[0]);Output
- Lamborghini
- Ferrari
- MaseratiSyntax
element.insertBefore(new, existing)
// or
node.insertBefore(new, existing)Parameters
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| new | The element to insert (required) |
| existing | The element to insert it before; if null, it will be inserted at the end (required) |
JavaScript Notes:
- When using JavaScript, single or double quotation marks are acceptable and work identically to one another; choose whichever you prefer, and stay consistent
- JavaScript is a case-sensitive language; firstName is NOT the same as firstname
- Arrays count starting from zero NOT one; so item 1 is position [0], item 2 is position [1], and item 3 is position [2] … and so on
- JavaScript variables must begin with a letter, $, or _
- JavaScript variables are case sensitive (x is not the same as X)
We’d like to acknowledge that we learned a great deal of our coding from W3Schools and TutorialsPoint, borrowing heavily from their teaching process and excellent code examples. We highly recommend both sites to deepen your experience, and further your coding journey. We’re just hitting the basics here at 1SMARTchicken.