XML DOM lastChild Property
 Complete Document Object Reference
Definition and Usage
The lastChild property returns the last child node of the document.
Syntax
Tips and Notes
Note: Firefox, and most other browsers, will treat empty white-spaces
or new lines as text nodes, Internet Explorer will not. So, in the example
below, we have a function that checks
the node type of the last child node.
Element nodes has a nodeType of 1, so if the last child node is not an
element node, it moves to the previous node, and checks if this node is an
element node. This continues until the last child node (which must be an element
node) is found. This way, the result will be correct in all browsers.
Tip: To read more about the differences between browsers, visit our
DOM Browsers chapter in our XML DOM
Tutorial.
Example
The following code fragment loads "books.xml"
into xmlDoc using
loadXMLDoc() and gets the last child node of the document:
//check if the last node is an element node
function get_lastchild(n)
{
x=n.lastChild;
while (x.nodeType!=1)
{
x=x.previousSibling;
}
return x;
}
xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");
x=get_lastchild(xmlDoc);
document.write("Nodename: " + x.nodeName);
document.write(" (nodetype: " + x.nodeType);
|
Output:
Nodename: bookstore (nodetype: 1)
|
Try-It-Yourself Demos
Get the
last child node of the document
Get the
first child node of the document
Complete Document Object Reference
Whether you're new to XML or already an advanced user, the user-friendly views
and powerful entry helpers, wizards, and debuggers in XMLSpy are designed to
meet your XML and Web services development needs from start to finish.
- XML editor
- Graphical XML Schema / DTD editors
- XSLT 1.0/2.0 editor, debugger, profiler
- XQuery editor, debugger, profiler
- Support for Office Open XML (OOXML)
- Graphical WSDL editor & SOAP debugger
- Java, C#, C++ code generation
- And much more!
Download a fully functional free 30-day trial today!
| 
