Document.createElementNS()

Creates an element with the specified namespace URI and qualified name.

To create an element without specifying a namespace URI, use the createElement() method.

Syntax

var element = document.createElementNS(namespaceURI, qualifiedName[, options]);

Parameters

namespaceURI

A string that specifies the namespace URI to associate with the element. The namespaceURI property of the created element is initialized with the value of namespaceURI. See Valid Namespace URIs.

qualifiedName

A string that specifies the type of element to be created. The nodeName property of the created element is initialized with the value of qualifiedName.

optionsOptional

An optional ElementCreationOptions object containing a single property named is, whose value is the tag name for a custom element previously defined using customElements.define(). For backwards compatibility with previous versions of the Custom Elements specification, some browsers will allow you to pass a string here instead of an object, where the string's value is the custom element's tag name. See Extending native HTML elements for more information on how to use this parameter.

The new element will be given an is attribute whose value is the custom element's tag name. Custom elements are an experimental feature only available in some browsers.

Return value

The new Element.

Important Namespace URIs

HTML: http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml
SVG: http://www.w3.org/2000/svg
MathML: http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML
XUL: http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul
XBL: http://www.mozilla.org/xbl

Example

This creates a new <div> element in the XHTML namespace and appends it to the vbox element. Although this is not an extremely useful XUL document, it does demonstrate the use of elements from two different namespaces within a single document:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"
      xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      title="||Working with elements||"
      onload="init()">

<script type="application/javascript"><![CDATA[
 let container;
 let newdiv;
 let txtnode;

 function init(){
   container = document.getElementById("ContainerBox");
   newdiv = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml", "div");
   txtnode = document.createTextNode("This is text that was constructed dynamically with createElementNS and createTextNode then inserted into the document using appendChild.");
   newdiv.appendChild(txtnode);
   container.appendChild(newdiv);
 }

]]></script>

 <vbox id="ContainerBox" flex="1">
  <html:div>
   The script on this page will add dynamic content below:
  </html:div>
 </vbox>

</page>

Note: The example given above uses inline script which is not recommended in XHTML documents. This particular example is actually an XUL document with embedded XHTML, however, the recommendation still applies.

Specifications

Specification
DOM Standard (DOM) # ref-for-dom-document-createelementns①

Browser compatibility

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	WebView Android	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet
`createElementNS`	1	12	1 Doesn't conform to the DOM spec for XUL and XHTML documents: `localName` and `namespaceURI` are not set to null on the created element.	9	≤12.1	1	1	18	4	≤12.1	1	1.0
`options_parameter`	56 For backwards compatibility, the `options` argument can be an object or a string with the custom element tag name, although the string version is deprecated.	≤79 For backwards compatibility, the `options` argument can be an object or a string with the custom element tag name, although the string version is deprecated.	50 Firefox accepts a string instead of an object here, but only from version 51 onwards. In version 50, options must be an object.	?	43 For backwards compatibility, the `options` argument can be an object or a string with the custom element tag name, although the string version is deprecated.	No	56 For backwards compatibility, the `options` argument can be an object or a string with the custom element tag name, although the string version is deprecated.	56 For backwards compatibility, the `options` argument can be an object or a string with the custom element tag name, although the string version is deprecated.	50 Firefox accepts a string instead of an object here, but only from version 51 onwards. In version 50, options must be an object.	43 For backwards compatibility, the `options` argument can be an object or a string with the custom element tag name, although the string version is deprecated.	No	6.0 For backwards compatibility, the `options` argument can be an object or a string with the custom element tag name, although the string version is deprecated.