If you need to find the nearest element to a particular node (not just any node, but specifically the nearest element), the goog.dom.getNextElementNode can do that:

The code

This code relies on functions explained elsewhere:

• goog.dom.NodeType

/**
 * Returns the first child node that is an element.
 * @private
 * @param {Node} node The node to get the next element from
 * @param {Boolean} forward Whether to look forwards or backwards
 * @return {Element}
 */
goog.dom.getNextElementNode_ = function(node, forward) {
  while (node && node.nodeType != goog.dom.NodeType.ELEMENT) {
    node = forward ? node.nextSibling : node.previousSibling;
  }
  return node;
};


/**
 * Returns the first child node that is an element.
 * @param {Node} node The node to get the first child element of
 * @return {Element}
 */
goog.dom.getFirstElementChild = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.firstChild, true);
};


/**
 * Returns the last child node that is an element.
 * @param {Node} node The node to get the last child element of
 * @return {Element}
 */
goog.dom.getLastElementChild = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.lastChild, false);
};


/**
 * Returns the first next sibling that is an element.
 * @param {Node} node The node to get the next sibling element of
 * @return {Element}
 */
goog.dom.getNextElementSibling = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.nextSibling, true);
};


/**
 * Returns the first previous sibling that is an element.
 * @param {Node} node The node to get the previous sibling element of
 * @return {Element}
 */
goog.dom.getPreviousElementSibling = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.previousSibling, false);
};

The code walkthrough

Everything revolves around the getNextElementNode_ method, which returns the nearest element to the given node. (If the given node is already an element, it returns the given node.) To call it, pass the starting node and a boolean parameter. The boolean should be true to search forwards in the document, or false to search backwards.

From this, we can make several convenience functions. To find the first element child of a node, call it with node.firstChild:

goog.dom.getFirstElementChild = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.firstChild, true);
};

Similarly, to find the last element child of a node, call it with node.lastChild:

goog.dom.getLastElementChild = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.lastChild, false);
};

To find the next sibling element (i.e. the next element in the DOM tree that shares the same parent as the given node), call it with node.nextSibling and pass true to search forwards in the DOM tree:

goog.dom.getNextElementSibling = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.nextSibling, true);
};

And finally, to find the previous subling element (i.e. the element just before the given node, but still sharing the same parent), call it with node.previousSibling and pass false to search backwards in the DOM tree:

goog.dom.getPreviousElementSibling = function(node) {
  return goog.dom.getNextElementNode_(node.previousSibling, false);
};

Further reading

• goog.dom.NodeType