---
type: "fhirpath-function"
title: "FHIRPath Function: descendants"
function: "descendants"
category: "Tree navigation"
section: "5.9.2"
source: "fhirpath/functions.json"
---
# FHIRPath Function: descendants
Returns a collection with all descendant nodes of all items in the input collection. The result does not include the items in the input collection themselves. This function is a shorthand for `repeat(children())`. Note that the ordering of the children is undefined and using functions like `first()` on the result may return different results on different platforms.

> **Note:** Many of these functions will result in a set of items of different underlying types. It may be necessary to use [`ofType()`](#fn-oftype) as described in the previous section to maintain type safety. See [Type safety and strict evaluation](#type-safety-and-strict-evaluation) for more information about type safe use of FHIRPath expressions.
## Summary
- **Category**: Tree navigation
- **Section**: `5.9.2`
- **Return Type**: `collection`
- **Empty Input Result**: `empty`
- **Errors on Multiple Input**: `false`
## Description
Returns a collection with all descendant nodes of all items in the input collection. The result does not include the nodes in the input collection themselves.
## Arguments
- none
## Type Mapping
- `Any-Any`
## Example
```fhirpath
Patient.descendants() // returns all descendant elements of Patient
```