Range.commonAncestorContainer

The Range.commonAncestorContainer read-only property returns the deepest — or furthest down the document tree — Node that contains both boundary points of the range. This means that if Range.startContainer and Range.endContainer both refer to the same node, this node is the commonAncestorContainer.

Since a Range need not be continuous, and may also partially select nodes, this is a convenient way to find a Node which encloses a Range.

This property is read-only. To change the ancestor container of a Node, consider using the various methods to set the start and end positions of the Range.

Syntax

rangeAncestor = range.commonAncestorContainer;

Example

var range = document.createRange();

range.setStart(startNode,startOffset);
range.setEnd(endNode,endOffset);
rangeAncestor = range.commonAncestorContainer;

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• The DOM interfaces index