What's wrong with innerHTML?
The innerHTML property is extremely popular because it provides a simple way to completely replace the contents of an HTML element. Another way to do that is to use the DOM Level 2 API (removeChild, createElement, appendChild) but using innerHTML is by far the easiest and most efficient way to modify the DOM tree. However, innerHTML has few problems of its own that you need to be aware of:- Content is replaced everywhere : When you append to (or otherwise modify) innerHTML, all the DOM nodes inside that element have to be re-parsed and recreated.
- Preserves event handlers attached to any DOM elements : Setting innerHTML will not automatically reattach event handlers to the new elements it creates, so you would have to keep track of them yourself and add them manually, potentially creating a memory leak on some browsers.
- Even if you use +=like "innerHTML = innerHTML + 'html'" still the old content is replaced by html: String concatenation just does not scale when dynamic DOM elements need to be created as the plus' and quote openings and closings becomes difficult to track.
Related Topics
- JavaScript Interview Questions (Part2)
- JavaScript Interview Questions (Part3)
- Is JavaScript a true OOP language?
- Advantages and Disadvantages of JavaScript
- Difference Between JavaScript and ECMAScript?
- What is noscript tag?
- Escaping Special Characters in JavaScript
- What is undefined x 1 in JavaScript?
- JavaScript : Logical Operators
- Difference between '=', '==' and '===' operators?
- How to reload a page using JavaScript?
- How to write html code dynamically using JavaScript?
- How to add html elements dynamically with JavaScript?
- How to load another html page from javascript?
- What is Browser Object Model
- How to detect the OS on the client machine in JavaScript?
- Difference between window, document, and screen in Javascript?
- Difference between the substr() and substring() in JavaScript?
- How to replace all occurrences of a string in JavaScript?
- How to test a string as a literal and as an object ?
- What is Associative Array? How do we use it?
- What is an anonymous function in JavaScript?
- What is the use of 'bind' method in JavaScript?
- Pure functions Vs. Impure functions in javascript
- Is Javascript a Functional Programming Language?
- What's the Difference Between Class and Prototypal Inheritance?
- Javascript, Pass by Value or Pass by Reference?
- How to prevent modification of an object in Javascript?
- What is 'this' keyword in JavaScript?
- How Does Function Hoisting Work in JavaScript?
- What do mean by NULL in Javascript?
- What does the delete operator do in JavaScript?
- What is the Infinity property used for in Javascript?
- Event bubbling and Event Capturing in JavScript?
- What is "strict mode" and how is it used in JavaScript?
- What is the difference between .call() and .apply()?
- Entire content of a JavaScript source file in a function block?
- What is an immediately-invoked function expression?
- What is escape & unescape String functions in JavaScript?
- What is the instanceof operator in JavaScript?
- What Are RESTful (REpresentational State Transfer)Web Services?
- What is Unobtrusive JavaScript & Why it's Important?
- What Does JavaScript Void(0) Mean?
- What are JavaScript Cookies?
- Difference between Client side JavaScript and Server side JavaScript
- TypeError: document.getelementbyid(...) is null
- Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property of undefined In JavaScript
- What's the difference between Null and Undefined?