Node: isEqualNode() method

The isEqualNode() method of the Node interface tests whether two nodes are equal. Two nodes are equal when they have the same type, defining characteristics (for elements, this would be their ID, number of children, and so forth), its attributes match, and so on. The specific set of data points that must match varies depending on the types of the nodes.

Syntax

isEqualNode(otherNode)

Parameters

otherNode: The Node to compare equality with.

Note: This parameter is not optional, but can be set to null.

Return value

A boolean value that is true if the two nodes are equals, or false if not. If otherNode is null, isEqualNode() always return false.

Example

In this example, we create three <div> blocks. The first and third have the same contents and attributes, while the second is different. Then we run some JavaScript to compare the nodes using isEqualNode() and output the results.

HTML

html

<div>This is the first element.</div>
<div>This is the second element.</div>
<div>This is the first element.</div>

<p id="output"></p>

#output {
  width: 440px;
  border: 2px solid black;
  border-radius: 5px;
  padding: 10px;
  margin-top: 20px;
  display: block;
}

JavaScript

let output = document.getElementById("output");
let divList = document.getElementsByTagName("div");

output.innerHTML += `div 0 equals div 0: ${divList[0].isEqualNode(
  divList[0],
)}<br/>`;
output.innerHTML += `div 0 equals div 1: ${divList[0].isEqualNode(
  divList[1],
)}<br/>`;
output.innerHTML += `div 0 equals div 2: ${divList[0].isEqualNode(
  divList[2],
)}<br/>`;

Results

Specifications

Specification
DOM Standard # ref-for-dom-node-isequalnode①

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser