Why does `childNodes` return a number larger than I expect?

Question

Could you please look at this jsFiddle example, and tell me why the number \'11\' is alerted rather than \'5\' (the number of

elements)?

From

Answer 1

You have text nodes there.

You can skip them while iterating with...

for (var i = 0, length = list_items.length; i < length; i++) {
    if (list_items[i].nodeType != 1) {
        continue;
    }
    // Any code here that accesses list_items[i] will sure to be an element.
}

jsFiddle.

Alternatively, you could do it in a more functional way...

list_items = Array.prototype.filter.call(list_items, function(element) { 
                 return element.nodeType == 1;
             });

jsFiddle.

You must use convert it to a proper array to use the filter() method. childNodes property returns a NodeList object.