The difference between 'innerHTML' and 'appendChild'

javascript html google-chrome google-chrome-devtools

10,436

Solution 1

Using appendChild adds a new DOM element to the end of the parent node.

Using innerHTML += takes the existing DOM content of the parent node, serialises it to HTML in a string, adds some more HTML to the end of the string, erases the existing elements in the parent node, generates DOM elements from that string, then appends the new nodes to the parent node.

Solution 2

Difference between innerHTML and appendChild Jquery / Javascript : What is the difference between innerHTML and appendChild?

Answer :

appendChild is used to insert new node in DOM. innerHTML is a property of DOM that allows to replace content of an element with different HTML, which automatically gets parsed into DOM nodes.

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10,436

Author by

Nigiri

Updated on June 14, 2022

Comments

Nigiri almost 2 years

Watching the number of nodes in Chrome DevTools, I'm wondering what the difference in the dom tree after clicking Button1 and it after clicking Button2.

index.html

<html>
<head>
    <script src="./js/main.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style/default.css">
</head>
<body>
    <div id="buttons">
        <div class="button" id="button1">Execute1</div>
        <div class="button" id="button2">Execute2</div>
    </div>    
    <div id="main"></div>
    <div id="main2"></div>
</body>
</html>

main.js

document.addEventListener( "DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    var button1 = document.getElementById('button1');
    button1.addEventListener('click', function() {
        document.getElementById('main').innerHTML += '<div>hello</div>';
    });

    var button2 = document.getElementById('button2');
    button2.addEventListener('click', function() {
        var div = document.createElement('div');
        div.appendChild(document.createTextNode('hello2'));
        document.getElementById('main2').appendChild(div);
    });
} );

default.css

#buttons {
    display:-webkit-flex;
    align-items: center;    
}

.button {
    height: 30px;
    width: 100px;
    margin: 5px;
    background-color: #0080C0;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    display:-webkit-flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
    cursor: pointer;
}

When I click the Button1, the number of nodes is incremented by 4.
But when I click the button2, the number of nodes is incremented by 2.
Be incrementing by 2 makes sense for me as they could be a 'div' element and a text node 'hello2'.
But clicking the Button1, what other nodes be appended?

enter image description here

DanMan almost 10 years

One uses the DOM and the other a browser feature.
Admin almost 10 years

Related: stackoverflow.com/questions/2305654/…

Nigiri almost 10 years

So, in the end, the appended nodes using 'innerHTML +=' are 'div' and text node of 'hello1'?
acat about 2 years

vague and fluffy, and sound a bit unsure. (and addChild not appendChild). this feels more like a comment than an answer