Attr: prefix property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The read-only prefix property of the Attr returns the namespace prefix of the attribute, or null if no prefix is specified.

The prefix is always in lower case, whatever case is used at the attribute creation.

Note: Only XML supports namespaces. HTML does not. That means that the prefix of an attribute of an HTML element will always be null.

Also, only the xml (for the xml:lang attribute), xlink (for the xlink:href, xlink:show, xlink:target and xlink:title attributes) and xpath namespaces are supported, and only on SVG and MathML elements.

Value

A string containing the prefix of the namespace the attribute belongs too. If none, it returns null.

Example

HTML

html
<svg xml:lang="en-US" class="struct" height="1" width="1">Click me</svg>
<label xml:lang="en-US" class="struct"></label>

<p>
  <button>Show value for &lt;svg&gt;</button>
  <button>Show value for &lt;label&gt;</button>
</p>

<p>
  Prefix of the attribute <code>xml:lang</code>:
  <output id="result">None.</output>
</p>

JavaScript

js
const elements = document.querySelectorAll(".struct");
const buttons = document.querySelectorAll("button");
const outputEl = document.querySelector("#result");

let i = 0;
for (const button of buttons) {
  const element = elements[i];
  button.addEventListener("click", () => {
    const attribute = element.attributes[0];
    outputEl.value = attribute.prefix;
  });
  i++;
}

Specifications

Specification
DOM
# dom-attr-prefix

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
prefix
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 1 (Release date: 2004-11-09)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 1 (Release date: 2003-06-23)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also