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 DOM Part 3: Creating & Removing Elements

1. createElement()

Creates a new DOM element (not in the document yet).

let newDiv = document.createElement("div");
newDiv.innerText = "Hello World";

2. append() and appendChild()

Adds element to the end of a parent.

document.body.append(newDiv);       // accepts text, multiple elements
parent.appendChild(newDiv);         // older, only one node

prepend()

Adds to the start of a parent.

parent.prepend(newDiv);

3. insertBefore()

Inserts a node before another inside the same parent.

parent.insertBefore(newNode, referenceNode);

4. remove() (modern)

Removes an element directly.

element.remove();

5. removeChild() (older)

Used on the parent, passing the child to remove.

parent.removeChild(child);

6. replaceChild()

Replaces one child with another.

parent.replaceChild(newNode, oldNode);

7. Cloning Nodes

cloneNode(deep)

  • true → clone entire element with children
  • false → only clone the node itself
let clone = original.cloneNode(true);
parent.append(clone);

8. Example: Add New List Item

let li = document.createElement("li");
li.innerText = "New Item";

document.querySelector("ul").appendChild(li);