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JS & DOM Reference

Overview

JavaScript Objects

JS Array JS Boolean JS Date JS Math JS Number JS String JS RegExp JS Global

Browser Objects

Window Navigator Screen History Location

Core DOM Objects

DOM Node DOM NodeList DOM NamedNodeMap DOM Document DOM Element DOM Attr

HTML DOM Objects

DOM Document DOM Events DOM Elements
DOM Anchor DOM Area DOM Base DOM Body DOM Button DOM Form DOM Frame/IFrame DOM Frameset DOM Image DOM Input Button DOM Input Checkbox DOM Input File DOM Input Hidden DOM Input Password DOM Input Radio DOM Input Reset DOM Input Submit DOM Input Text DOM Link DOM Meta DOM Object DOM Option DOM Select DOM Style DOM Table DOM td / th DOM tr DOM Textarea

DOM Document createDocumentFragment() Method

Document Object Reference Document Object

Example

Create a documentFragment node,
append a child to it (a list item),
change the list item's node value,
insert it as the last child of the list:

var d=document.createDocumentFragment();
d.appendChild(document.getElementsByTagName("LI")[0]);
d.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue="Milk";
document.getElementsByTagName("UL")[0].appendChild(d);

The result will be:

Before the changes:

Coffee
Tea

After the changes:

Tea
Milk

Try it yourself »

Definition and Usage

The createDocumentFragment() method creates a imaginary Node object, with all the properties and methods of the Node object.

The createDocumentFragment() method is usefull when you want to extract parts of your document, change, add, or delete, some of the content, and insert it back to your document.

You can also use the document's Document object to perform these changes, but to prevent destroying the document structure, it can be safer to extraxt only parts of the document, make the changes, and insert the part back to the document.

Note: Nodes being appended to the document fragment, from the document, will be removed from the document.