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Non-standard
This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.

Obsolete
This feature is obsolete. Although it may still work in some browsers, its use is discouraged since it could be removed at any time. Try to avoid using it.

The Range.compareNode() returns a constant indicating the position of the Node.

The possible values are:

NODE_BEFORE (0)
Node starts before the Range
NODE_AFTER (1)
Node ends after the Range
NODE_BEFORE_AND_AFTER (2)
Node starts before and ends after the Range
NODE_INSIDE (3)
Node starts after and ends before the Range, i.e. the Node is completely selected by the Range.
Warning: This method has been removed from Gecko 1.9 and will not exist in future versions of Firefox, which was the only browser implementing it; you should switch to compareBoundaryPoints() as soon as possible.

The following function can be used as replacement:

function rangeCompareNode(range, node) {
  var nodeRange = node.ownerDocument.createRange();
  try {
    nodeRange.selectNode(node);
  }
  catch (e) {
    nodeRange.selectNodeContents(node);
  }
  var nodeIsBefore = range.compareBoundaryPoints(Range.START_TO_START, nodeRange) == 1;
  var nodeIsAfter = range.compareBoundaryPoints(Range.END_TO_END, nodeRange) == -1;

  if (nodeIsBefore && !nodeIsAfter)
    return 0;
  if (!nodeIsBefore && nodeIsAfter)
    return 1;
  if (nodeIsBefore && nodeIsAfter)
    return 2;

  return 3;
}

Syntax

returnValue = range.compareNode( referenceNode );

Parameters

referenceNode
The Node to compare with the Range.

Example

range = document.createRange();
range.selectNode(document.getElementsByTagName("div").item(0));
returnValue = range.compareNode(document.getElementsByTagName("p").item(0));

Notes

This method is obsolete; you should use the W3C DOM Range methods (see compareBoundaryPoints()).

Specification

This method is not standard and therefore not part of any specification.

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic Support Not supported 1.0 (1.7 or earlier)
Removed in 3.0 (1.9)
Not supported Not supported Not supported
Feature Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support Not supported 1.0 (1.0)
Removed in 1.0 (1.9)
Not supported Not supported Not supported

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: Mems, teoli, fscholz, jsx, kscarfone, Sheppy, Kirschkern, Nickolay, Sicking, Gor1
 Last updated by: Mems,