jQuery Add Elements

Add New HTML Content

We will look at four jQuery methods that are used to add new content:

append() - Inserts content at the end of the selected elements
prepend() - Inserts content at the beginning of the selected elements
after() - Inserts content after the selected elements
before() - Inserts content before the selected elements

jQuery append() Method

The jQuery append() method inserts content AT THE END of the selected HTML elements.

Example

                  $("p").append("Some appended text.");

Add Several New Elements With append() and prepend()

In both examples above, we have only inserted some text/HTML at the beginning/end of the selected HTML elements. However, both the append() and prepend() methods can take an infinite number of new elements as parameters. The new elements can be generated with text/HTML (like we have done in the examples above), with jQuery, or with JavaScript code and DOM elements. In the following example, we create several new elements. The elements are created with text/HTML, jQuery, and JavaScript/DOM. Then we append the new elements to the text with the append() method (this would have worked for prepend() too) :

Example

                  function appendText() {
                  var txt1 = "<p>Text.</p>";               // Create element with HTML 
                  var txt2 = $("<p></p>").text("Text.");   // Create with jQuery
                  var txt3 = document.createElement("p");  // Create with DOM
                  txt3.innerHTML = "Text.";
                  $("body").append(txt1, txt2, txt3);      // Append the new elements
                  }

Add Several New Elements With after() and before()

Also, both the after() and before() methods can take an infinite number of new elements as parameters. The new elements can be generated with text/HTML (like we have done in the example above), with jQuery, or with JavaScript code and DOM elements. In the following example, we create several new elements. The elements are created with text/HTML, jQuery, and JavaScript/DOM. Then we insert the new elements to the text with the after() method (this would have worked for before() too) :

Example

                  function afterText() {
                  var txt1 = "<b>I </b>";                    // Create element with HTML 
                  var txt2 = $("<i></i>").text("love ");     // Create with jQuery
                  var txt3 = document.createElement("b");    // Create with DOM
                  txt3.innerHTML = "jQuery!";
                  $("img").after(txt1, txt2, txt3);          // Insert new elements after 
                  }