To solve the "Cannot read property 'appendChild' of null" error, make sure the DOM element on which you're calling the method exists. The error often occurs after providing an invalid id to the `getElementById` method.

Solve - Cannot read property 'appendChild' of Null in JS

## Solve - Cannot read property 'appendChild' of Null

**The "Cannot read property 'appendChild' of null" error occurs for 2 reasons:**

1. Calling the `appendChild()` method on a DOM element that doesn't exist, e.g
   calling `getElementById` with invalid id.
2. Inserting the JS script tag above the HTML, where the DOM elements are
   declared.

```javascript:index.js
const el = null;

const p = document.createElement('p');

// ⛔️ Cannot read properties of null (reading 'appendChild')
el.appendChild(p);
```

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**To solve the "Cannot read property 'appendChild' of null" error, make sure the
DOM element on which you're calling the method exists. The error often occurs
after providing an invalid id to the `getElementById` method.**

```javascript:index.js
const el = document.getElementById('does-not-exist');
console.log(el); // 👉️ null

const p = document.createElement('p');

// ⛔️ Cannot read properties of null (reading 'appendChild')
el.appendChild(p);
```

Because we provided an `id` that doesn't exist in the DOM, we got back a `null`
value, on which we tried to call the `appendChild` method and got the error.

**To solve the "Cannot read property 'appendChild' of null" error, make sure to
insert the JS script tag at the bottom of the body. The JS script tag should be
placed after the HTML elements have been declared.**

```html:index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
  </head>
  <body>
    
    <script src="index.js"></script>

    <div id="box"></div>
  </body>
</html>
```

Because we placed the JS script tag above the `div` element, the `index.js` file
is executed before the DOM element is created.

This means that we are unable to access the `div` in the `index.js` file.

```javascript:index.js
const el = document.getElementById('box');
console.log(el); // 👉️ null

const p = document.createElement('p');

// ⛔️ Cannot read properties of null (reading 'appendChild')
el.appendChild(p);
```

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You have to place the JS script tag at the bottom of the body, after the DOM
elements have been declared.

```html:index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="box"></div>

    
    <script src="index.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>
```

Now you can access the `div` element inside of the `index.js` file.

```javascript:index.js
const el = document.getElementById('box');
console.log(el); // 👉️ div

const p = document.createElement('p');

// ✅ works
el.appendChild(p);
```

## Conclusion

The "Cannot read property 'appendChild' of null" error occurs when trying to
call the `appendChild` method on a DOM element that doesn't exist.

To solve the error, make sure to only call the `appendChild` method on valid DOM
elements.

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Solve - Cannot read property 'appendChild' of Null in JS

Solve - Cannot read property 'appendChild' of Null #

Conclusion #

Borislav Hadzhiev

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Solve - Cannot read property 'appendChild' of Null in JS