Get Doctype Of An Html As String With Javascript

When building a website, understanding the structure of your HTML document is crucial for smooth development. One essential part of an HTML document is the `` declaration, which specifies the version of HTML being used. In this article, we'll explore how you can easily retrieve the doctype of an HTML document as a string using JavaScript.

To retrieve the doctype of an HTML document, you can leverage the `document.doctype` property in JavaScript. This property represents the Document Type Declaration (DTD) of the current document and allows you to access information about the document's doctype.

// Get the doctype of the HTML document as a string
const doctypeString = new XMLSerializer().serializeToString(document.doctype);
console.log(doctypeString);

In the code snippet above, we use the `XMLSerializer` interface in JavaScript to convert the `document.doctype` object into a string representation. This string contains the entire `` declaration of the HTML document.

If you want to display the doctype string on your webpage, you can easily do so by creating a new HTML element and setting its content to the doctype string:

// Display the doctype string on the webpage
const doctypeElement = document.createElement('p');
doctypeElement.textContent = doctypeString;
document.body.appendChild(doctypeElement);

By adding the code above to your JavaScript file, you can dynamically retrieve the doctype of your HTML document and display it on your webpage for debugging or informational purposes.

It's worth noting that the `document.doctype` property will return `null` if the document does not have a doctype declaration. Therefore, before accessing the doctype, you may want to check if it exists using an `if` statement:

// Check if the document has a doctype declaration
if (document.doctype) {
  const doctypeString = new XMLSerializer().serializeToString(document.doctype);
  console.log(doctypeString);
} else {
  console.log('The document does not have a doctype declaration.');
}

In conclusion, retrieving the doctype of an HTML document as a string using JavaScript is a simple yet valuable technique that can help you better understand and work with your web projects. By utilizing the `document.doctype` property and the `XMLSerializer` interface, you can easily access and display the doctype declaration in your web applications. Happy coding!