JavaScript Element nextElementSibling Property

What You’ll Learn

Element.nextElementSibling is a read-only instance property that returns the element immediately after the current one in the parent’s children list, or null when there is no next element. Learn how it differs from nextSibling, how to chain sibling traversal, and how to use it safely—with five examples and try-it labs.

Introduction

When you already have one element and need the next tag beside it, nextElementSibling is the direct read.

It is great for stepping across cards, list items, rows, or menu entries without getting tripped up by whitespace text nodes that nextSibling may return.

const first = document.getElementById("div-01");
console.log(first.nextElementSibling.textContent);

Understanding the Property

MDN: the read-only nextElementSibling property returns the element immediately following the specified one in its parent’s children list, or null if the specified element is already the last one in the list.

• Read-only — use it to navigate, not assign.
• Element or null — never returns text or comment nodes.
• Sibling-only — stays on the same parent level.
• Baseline — widely available since July 2015 (MDN).

📝 Syntax

nextElementSibling

Value

An Element reference for the next sibling element, or null when there is no following element sibling.

📋 MDN Sibling Loop Shape

MDN starts from one element and walks forward through following element siblings:

let el = document.getElementById("div-01").nextElementSibling;
console.log("Siblings of div-01:");
while (el) {
  console.log(el.nodeName);
  el = el.nextElementSibling;
}

Related learning: nextSibling, previousElementSibling, and children.

Examples Gallery

Examples follow MDN Element: nextElementSibling. Labs use simple sibling groups so you can compare element-only navigation safely.

const first = document.getElementById("div-01");
console.log(first.nextElementSibling.id);

div-02

const first = document.getElementById("first");
console.log({
  nextSiblingType: first.nextSibling.nodeName,
  nextElementSiblingTag: first.nextElementSibling.tagName
});

{
  "nextSiblingType": "#text",
  "nextElementSiblingTag": "DIV"
}

const last = document.getElementById("last");
console.log(last.nextElementSibling); // null
console.log(last.nextSibling === null || last.nextSibling.nodeName === "#text");

null
true

let el = document.getElementById("div-01").nextElementSibling;
const names = [];
while (el) {
  names.push(el.id);
  el = el.nextElementSibling;
}
console.log(names.join(", "));

div-02, div-03

console.log({
  supported: "nextElementSibling" in Element.prototype,
  returns: "Element or null",
  tip: "Use nextSibling only when you need text/comment nodes too",
  status: "Baseline Widely available (MDN)"
});

{
  "supported": true,
  "returns": "Element or null",
  "tip": "Use nextSibling only when you need text/comment nodes too",
  "status": "Baseline Widely available (MDN)"
}

🚀 Common Use Cases

• Moving to the next tab, card, row, or menu item element.
• Skipping whitespace nodes that nextSibling would return.
• Walking forward through remaining siblings in a loop.
• Checking whether an element has a following sibling before enabling a “next” action.
• Pairing with previousElementSibling for back/forward sibling navigation.

🔧 How It Works

📝 Notes

• Not Deprecated, Experimental, or Non-standard on MDN (Baseline Widely available).
• Returns null, not undefined, when no next element sibling exists.
• From the NonDocumentTypeChildNode mixin, so it is available on element, character data, and document type nodes where applicable.
• Related: namespaceURI, outerHTML, children, nextSibling, previousElementSibling, JavaScript hub.

💡 Best Practices