document.getelementbyId will return null if element is not defined?

console.log(document.getElementById('xx') ) evaluates to null.

document.getElementById('xx') !=null evaluates to false

You should use document.getElementById('xx') !== null as it is a stronger equality check.

getElementById is defined by DOM Level 1 HTML to return null in the case no element is matched.

!==null is the most explicit form of the check, and probably the best, but there is no non-null falsy value that getElementById can return - you can only get null or an always-truthy Element object. So there's no practical difference here between !==null, !=null or the looser if (document.getElementById('xx')).