Making a DOM element reference change to a null reference when removed from the DOM

Question

If I use document.getElementById to store a DOM element in a variable, and then remove the element from the DOM with the removeChild method, the object stored in the variable is not updated to a null reference. For example:

<div id="a">

</div>

<script>

  var a = document.getElementById('a');

  alert(a); // Alerts "[object HTMLDivElement]".

  a.parentNode.removeChild(a);

  alert(a); // Still alerts "[object HTMLDivElement]".

</script>

Is there any way to make the DOM element reference stored in the a variable more "live" in that it could detect when the element is removed from the DOM and thus be updated to null or whatever?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

You can't, because you store in a variable, just call var a = document.getElementById('a') when you need check.

var a = document.getElementById('a');

alert(a); // Alerts "[object HTMLDivElement]".

a.parentNode.removeChild(a);

a = document.getElementById('a');

alert(a); // "undefined".