getChildrenelement

getChildrenelement is a JavaScript utility function intended to retrieve the direct child elements of a given parent node. It filters out non-element nodes such as text, comment, and processing instruction nodes, returning a list of Element objects in document order.

Definition and behavior

- Purpose: To obtain only element children of a specified parent node.

- Parameters: A single argument, parent, which should be a Node (typically an Element).

- Returns: An array containing the direct child elements of parent. If there are no element children, an empty array is returned.

- Notes: It does not traverse deeper than the immediate children; only the first level of child nodes is considered.

Common implementation pattern

A typical implementation iterates over parent.childNodes and collects nodes with nodeType === 1 (ELEMENT_NODE). For example:

function getChildrenelement(parent) {

var children = [];

if (!parent || !parent.childNodes) return children;

for (var i = 0; i < parent.childNodes.length; i++) {

var node = parent.childNodes[i];

if (node.nodeType === 1) children.push(node);

}

return children;

}

Relation to native DOM APIs

In standard DOM, Element.children already provides the element children as a live HTMLCollection. To work with arrays, developers often convert it (e.g., Array.from(parent.children) or [...parent.children]). The getChildrenelement approach is commonly used in older codebases or libraries to normalize the concept of “element children” across environments.

Limitations and variations

The exact name and behavior can vary by library or project. Some implementations may offer additional filtering (by tag name, class, or attributes) or handle null/undefined parents differently. In modern code, prefer built-in properties when possible for clarity and performance.

See also

Node.childNodes, Element.children, Array.from, querySelectorAll.