<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <body> <p>Example list:</p> <ul><li id="item1">Coffee (first li)</li><li id="item2">Tea (second li)</li></ul> <p>Click the button to get the HTML content of the previous sibling of the second list item.</p> <button onclick="myFunction()">Try it</button> <p><strong>Note:</strong> Whitespace inside elements is considered as text, and text is considered as nodes.</p> <p>If you add whitespace between the two li elements, the result will be "undefined".</p> <p id="demo"></p> <script> function myFunction() { var x = document.getElementById("item2").previousSibling.innerHTML; alert(x); } </script> </body> </html>