Element: prepend() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The Element.prepend() method inserts a set of Node objects or strings before the first child of the Element. Strings are inserted as equivalent Text nodes.

Syntax

js
prepend(param1)
prepend(param1, param2)
prepend(param1, param2, /* …, */ paramN)

Parameters

param1, …, paramN

A set of Node objects or strings to insert.

Return value

None (undefined).

Exceptions

HierarchyRequestError DOMException

Thrown when the node cannot be inserted at the specified point in the hierarchy.

Examples

Prepending an element

js
let div = document.createElement("div");
let p = document.createElement("p");
let span = document.createElement("span");
div.append(p);
div.prepend(span);

console.log(div.childNodes); // NodeList [ <span>, <p> ]

Prepending text

js
let div = document.createElement("div");
div.append("Some text");
div.prepend("Headline: ");

console.log(div.textContent); // "Headline: Some text"

Prepending an element and text

js
let div = document.createElement("div");
let p = document.createElement("p");
div.prepend("Some text", p);

console.log(div.childNodes); // NodeList [ #text "Some text", <p> ]

The prepend method is unscopable

The prepend() method is not scoped into the with statement. See Symbol.unscopables for more information.

js
let div = document.createElement("div");

with (div) {
  prepend("foo");
}
// ReferenceError: prepend is not defined

Specifications

Specification
DOM Standard
# ref-for-dom-parentnode-prepend①

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also