Is it possible to get element's numerical index in its parent node without looping?

Question

Normally I\'m doing it this way:

for(i=0;i

Answer 1

You could count siblings... The childNodes list includes text and element nodes-

function whichChild(elem){
    var  i= 0;
    while((elem=elem.previousSibling)!=null) ++i;
    return i;
}