I'm simply trying to hide the parent div ments_section.

<div class="content content_green">
    <div id="ments_section"></div>
</div>

I tried this:

document.getElementById("ments_section").parentNode.style.display = "none"

which worked, but gives me this error in IE 9:

Unable to get value of the property 'parentNode': object is null or underfined.

I'm very new to JavaScript, so I'm not sure how to fix this error or if it's even the right approach. Thanks in advance.

I'm simply trying to hide the parent div ments_section.

<div class="content content_green">
    <div id="ments_section"></div>
</div>

I tried this:

document.getElementById("ments_section").parentNode.style.display = "none"

which worked, but gives me this error in IE 9:

Unable to get value of the property 'parentNode': object is null or underfined.

I'm very new to JavaScript, so I'm not sure how to fix this error or if it's even the right approach. Thanks in advance.

• javascript
• parent

Share Improve this question Follow edited Jul 30, 2012 at 22:53 user1373748 asked Jul 30, 2012 at 22:40 user1373748user1373748 3311 silver badge66 bronze badges

Add a ment  | 

3 Answers 3

Sorted by: Reset to default 2

Well, you tagged this jQuery so I'll provide the "jQuery way":

jQuery('#ments_section').parent().hide();

EDIT: @bobek gives the reason why your problem occurred in the first place. He is correct. I should note that with jQuery, you'd still have the problem but no error.

You didn't close the child div. IE is rather prone to errors and will yield at you.

<div class="content content_green">
       <div id="ments_section"></div>
</div>

Use jQuery for this:

$("#ments_section").parent().hide()

Or, you could do this the right way:

$("div.content.content_green").hide()

Currently you don't use jquery. Visit jQuery documentation