Replacing / Manipulating element in html string using jquery

Question

I have a html string (not DOM), that I want to manipulate using jquery. Why doesn't this work:

var html = '<div><h4><a class="preview-target" href="content.html">Headline</a></h4></div>';
console.log(html);

var elem = $('h4', $(html));
// replace "Headline" with "whatever" => Doesn't work
elem.replaceWith("whatever");

console.log(html);

I have a jsfiddle here for testing.

The above code is just a simplified example. The real html is much more complex, that is, I definitely need to rely on jQuery for manipulating the html string.

Arun P Johny · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 09:48:59Z

57

When you modify the jQuery object, it will not change the value in the string literal.

You can use

var html = '<div><h4><a class="preview-target" href="content.html">Headline</a></h4></div>';
console.log(html);

var $html = $('<div />',{html:html});
// replace "Headline" with "whatever" => Doesn't work
$html.find('a').html("whatever");

console.log($html.html());

Demo: Fiddle

edited Mar 3, 2014 at 9:48

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 9:42

Arun P Johny

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4 Comments

nachtigall Over a year ago

"When you modify the jQuery object, it will not change the value in the string literal." Why is that? Seems like a bug to me?!

Adam Youngers Over a year ago

@ArunPJohny I don't understand var $html = $('<div />',{html:html}); What exactly does this bit of code do? Looks like you create an object? What is the <div /> about? Does that add to the original HTML or is it selecting the div within the existing string?

Arun P Johny Over a year ago

@AdamYoungers $('<div />',{html:html}); - creates a dom div element, and set the value of html as its innerHTML....

vkGunasekaran Over a year ago

It will not change the value in the string literal - important key is here. "$($('select').html())" will do the trick and do whatever you want like $($('select').html()).find('h4').remove()

Peter Rasmussen · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 09:43:48Z

6

You can find the h4 then call the replaceWith method.

var html = $('<div><h4><a class="preview-target" href="content.html">Headline</a></h4></div>');

console.log(html.html());
html.find('h4').replaceWith('whatever')
console.log(html.html());

Jsfiddle

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 9:43

Peter Rasmussen

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Comments

Vicky Gonsalves · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 09:39:39Z

2

var html = '<div><h4><a class="preview-target" href="content.html">Headline</a></h4></div>';
var replaced=html.replace("Headline","whatever");
console.log(replaced);

Try this

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 9:39

Vicky Gonsalves

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2 Comments

nachtigall Over a year ago

ok, but why isn't my above code not working? My code above is just a simplified example, the real code is much more difficult html that I cannot manipulate using simple replace method. So I need jQuery

nachtigall Over a year ago

@A.Wolff ok, but that would only work for my minimal working example code, not for my much more complex code. There I need to rely on jQuery. I updated the question with regards to this

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