Get parents until element matches selector

JavaScript, Browser · Jan 6, 2021

Finds all the ancestors of an element up until the element matched by the specified selector.

  • Use Node.parentNode and a while loop to move up the ancestor tree of the element.
  • Use Array.prototype.unshift() to add each new ancestor to the start of the array.
  • Use Element.matches() to check if the current element matches the specified selector.
const getParentsUntil = (el, selector) => {
  let parents = [],
    _el = el.parentNode;
  while (_el && typeof _el.matches === 'function') {
    parents.unshift(_el);
    if (_el.matches(selector)) return parents;
    else _el = _el.parentNode;
  }
  return [];
};
getParentsUntil(document.querySelector('#home-link'), 'header');
// [header, nav, ul, li]

Written by Angelos Chalaris

I'm Angelos Chalaris, a JavaScript software engineer, based in Athens, Greece. The best snippets from my coding adventures are published here to help others learn to code.

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