I want to parse a html string to jQuery object then find an element by ID.
I tried 3 ways bellow, but only the last works. I don't know why the others not works?
var html = "<html><body><div id='main'></div></body></html>";
// Not work, return 0
console.log($(html).find('#main').length);
// Not work, return 0
console.log($($.parseHTML(html)).find('#main').length);
// Works, return 1
console.log($("<html/>").html(html).find('#main').length);
Here is the sample: /
I want to parse a html string to jQuery object then find an element by ID.
I tried 3 ways bellow, but only the last works. I don't know why the others not works?
var html = "<html><body><div id='main'></div></body></html>";
// Not work, return 0
console.log($(html).find('#main').length);
// Not work, return 0
console.log($($.parseHTML(html)).find('#main').length);
// Works, return 1
console.log($("<html/>").html(html).find('#main').length);
Here is the sample: http://jsfiddle.net/nbyofkam/2/
Share Improve this question asked Aug 13, 2014 at 8:28 andyfandyf 3,3403 gold badges25 silver badges37 bronze badges 3 |2 Answers
Reset to default 10It's documented :
When passing in complex HTML, some browsers may not generate a DOM that exactly replicates the HTML source provided. As mentioned, jQuery uses the browser"s .innerHTML property to parse the passed HTML and insert it into the current document. During this process, some browsers filter out certain elements such as
<html>,<title>, or<head>elements. As a result, the elements inserted may not be representative of the original string passed.
As a result, $(html) is reduced to "<div id="main"></div>". You can verify that by logging $(html)[0].outerHTML.
So you can't use find without wrapping it, which is what you do.
An alternate way to do this -
var myTestDiv = document.createElement('div');
var mystr = '<div id="main"></div>';
myTestDiv.innerHTML = mystr;
console.log(myTestDiv.querySelector('div#main'));
$(html) == <div id="main"></div>that's why you can't use.find()to find it. – Anton Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 8:31console.log($($.parseXML(html)).find('#main').length)but its better to avoid unnecessary wrapping. – Yury Tarabanko Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 8:36parseXMLinstead pfparseHTMLhelps. – Zane Commented Nov 8, 2016 at 23:39