---
type: "fhirpath-function"
title: "FHIRPath Function: children"
function: "children"
category: "Tree navigation"
section: "5.9.1"
source: "fhirpath/functions.json"
---
# FHIRPath Function: children
Returns a collection with all immediate child nodes of all items in the input collection. Note that the ordering of the children is undefined and using functions like `first()` on the result may return different results on different platforms.
## Summary
- **Category**: Tree navigation
- **Section**: `5.9.1`
- **Return Type**: `collection`
- **Empty Input Result**: `empty`
- **Errors on Multiple Input**: `false`
## Description
Returns a collection with all immediate child nodes of all items in the input collection. Note that the ordering of the children is undefined.
## Arguments
- none
## Type Mapping
- `Any-Any`
## Example
```fhirpath
Patient.children() // returns all immediate child elements of Patient
```