How to replace DOM element in place using Javascript?
by using replaceChild():
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<a id="myAnchor" href="http://www.stackoverflow.com">StackOverflow</a>
</div>
<script type="text/JavaScript">
var myAnchor = document.getElementById("myAnchor");
var mySpan = document.createElement("span");
mySpan.innerHTML = "replaced anchor!";
myAnchor.parentNode.replaceChild(mySpan, myAnchor);
</script>
</body>
</html>
A.replaceWith(span) - No parent needed
Generic form:
target.replaceWith(element)
Way better/cleaner than the previous method.
For your use case:
A.replaceWith(span)
Advanced usage
- You can pass multiple values (or use spread operator
...). - Any string value will be added as a text element.
Examples:
// Initially [child1, target, child3]
target.replaceWith(span, "foo") // [child1, span, "foo", child3]
const list = ["bar", span]
target.replaceWith(...list, "fizz") // [child1, "bar", span, "fizz", child3]
Safely handling null target
If your target has a chance to be null, you can consider using the newish ?. optional chaining operator. Nothing will happen if target doesn't exist. Read more here.
target?.replaceWith?.(element)
Related DOM methods
-
Read More -
child.beforeandchild.after -
Read More -
parent.prependandparent.append
Mozilla Docs
Supported Browsers - 95% Oct '21
var a = A.parentNode.replaceChild(document.createElement("span"), A);
a is the replaced A element.
This question is very old, but I found myself studying for a Microsoft Certification, and in the study book it was suggested to use:
oldElement.replaceNode(newElement)
I looked it up and it seems to only be supported in IE. Doh..
I thought I'd just add it here as a funny side note ;)
I had a similar issue and found this thread. Replace didn't work for me, and going by the parent was difficult for my situation. Inner Html replaced the children, which wasn't what I wanted either. Using outerHTML got the job done. Hope this helps someone else!
currEl = <div>hello</div>
newElem = <span>Goodbye</span>
currEl.outerHTML = newElem
# currEl = <span>Goodbye</span>