Remove all child elements of a DOM node in JavaScript

Question

How would I go about removing all of the child elements of a DOM node in JavaScript?

Say I have the following (ugly) HTML:

    &         


        

Answer 1

var empty_element = function (element) {

    var node = element;

    while (element.hasChildNodes()) {              // selected elem has children

        if (node.hasChildNodes()) {                // current node has children
            node = node.lastChild;                 // set current node to child
        }
        else {                                     // last child found
            console.log(node.nodeName);
            node = node.parentNode;                // set node to parent
            node.removeChild(node.lastChild);      // remove last node
        }
    }
}

This will remove all nodes within the element.