When I do:

function testtext()
{
    var text = "test line 1\n\
    test line 2"
    ;
    $("#divtext").text(text);   
}

It all appears on one line. When I do:

function testtext()
{
    var text = "test line 1\n\
    test line 2"
    ;
    document.getElementById("divtext").innerText = text;    
}

It works fine...

When I do:

function testtext()
{
    var text = "test line 1\n\
    test line 2"
    ;
    $("#divtext").text(text);   
}

It all appears on one line. When I do:

function testtext()
{
    var text = "test line 1\n\
    test line 2"
    ;
    document.getElementById("divtext").innerText = text;    
}

It works fine...

• javascript
• jquery
• html

• 1 what is your question?? or issue – kobe Commented Jul 5, 2011 at 1:12
• What about if you set the textContent property ? – alex Commented Jul 5, 2011 at 1:12
• 2 Well a new line in HTML is created using the <br /> element, not a "normal" line break. – Felix Kling Commented Jul 5, 2011 at 1:15

3 Answers 3

Use $("#divtext").html(text);

Instead of $("#divtext").text(text);

If you're wondering why, it's because jQuery creates a new text node using document.createTextNode, passing your string as the argument.

This apparently behaves differently than innerText, though it seems to behave the same as setting .textContent and as explicitly setting the value of a textNode through .nodeValue or .data.

The text() method will do an HTML escape. There are some workarounds on the API page, but perhaps the text() method isn't best suited for what you want to do?

http://api.jquery./text/