Trying to set text in a td through dom

[Bill M.]

Hello,

What's up with this?

I've got a <td id="container" > and want to set the text in this cell like
....

var container = document.getEle mentById('conta iner');
container.data = "Data in cell";

but can only seem to do it like this ...

var label = document.create TextNode("Data in cell");
container.appen dChild(label);

which seems to actually leave me with two text nodes.


Thanks,

Bill

[Bill M.]

Re: Trying to set text in a td through dom

Ok ... It appears that you need *something* to start with between the <td>
and the </td>

So I have ...

<td id=container>&n bsp;</td>

then I can do ..

var container = document.getEle mentById('conta iner');
container.data = "Data in cell";

But this is strange because there should exist a text node (CharacterData)
for every element, even if there is no text; at least as I understand the
model.


"Bill M." <wpmccormick@ho tmail.com> wrote in message
news:6c9c3$3fb1 7835$44a52955$7 763@msgid.megan ewsservers.com. ..[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> What's up with this?
>
> I've got a <td id="container" > and want to set the text in this cell like
> ...
>
> var container = document.getEle mentById('conta iner');
> container.data = "Data in cell";
>
> but can only seem to do it like this ...
>
> var label = document.create TextNode("Data in cell");
> container.appen dChild(label);
>
> which seems to actually leave me with two text nodes.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bill
>
>[/color]

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

Re: Trying to set text in a td through dom

"Bill M." <wpmccormick@ho tmail.com> writes:

[topposting fixed][color=blue]
> "Bill M." <wpmccormick@ho tmail.com> wrote in message
> news:6c9c3$3fb1 7835$44a52955$7 763@msgid.megan ewsservers.com. ..[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
>> I've got a <td id="container" > and want to set the text in this cell like
>> ...
>>
>> var container = document.getEle mentById('conta iner');
>> container.data = "Data in cell";[/color][/color]

If the td has a text node inside it, you can use
container.first Child.nodeValue = "Data in cell";
[color=blue][color=green]
>> but can only seem to do it like this ...
>>
>> var label = document.create TextNode("Data in cell");
>> container.appen dChild(label);[/color][/color]

That works too.
[color=blue][color=green]
>> which seems to actually leave me with two text nodes.[/color][/color]

It does. You can remove the existing text node first:
container.remov eChild(containe r.firstChild);

[color=blue]
> Ok ... It appears that you need *something* to start with between the <td>
> and the </td>
>
> So I have ...
>
> <td id=container>&n bsp;</td>
>
> then I can do ..
>
> var container = document.getEle mentById('conta iner');
> container.data = "Data in cell";[/color]

Does it work? I didn't think the td element had a "data" property.
However,
container.first Child.data = "Data in cell";
would work (equivalent to .nodeValue).
[color=blue]
> But this is strange because there should exist a text node (CharacterData)
> for every element, even if there is no text; at least as I understand the
> model.[/color]

I don't think so. Every CharacterData has a "data" property, but the td
*Element* is not a CharacterData.
The inheritance hierarchy is:
+------+
|/Node/|
+------+
/ \
+-------+ +---------------+
|Element| |/CharacterData/|
+-------+ +---------------+
\
+----+
|Text|
+----+

The td element is an Element. Its first child node is a Text.

You try to set the "data" property of something that is not a
CharacterData. That just creates a new property, but otherwise
does nothing.

/L
--
Lasse Reichstein Nielsen - lrn@hotpop.com
DHTML Death Colors: <URL:http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/rasterTriangleD OM.html>
'Faith without judgement merely degrades the spirit divine.'

[Bill M.]

Re: Trying to set text in a td through dom

[snip]
[color=blue]
> Does it work? I didn't think the td element had a "data" property.
> However,
> container.first Child.data = "Data in cell";
> would work (equivalent to .nodeValue).[/color]

Sorry my BAD; I left out the firstChild. However, this still appears not to
work unless there is some text already there.
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
> > But this is strange because there should exist a text node[/color][/color]
(CharacterData)[color=blue][color=green]
> > for every element, even if there is no text; at least as I understand[/color][/color]
the[color=blue][color=green]
> > model.[/color]
>
> I don't think so. Every CharacterData has a "data" property, but the td
> *Element* is not a CharacterData.
> The inheritance hierarchy is:
> +------+
> |/Node/|
> +------+
> / \
> +-------+ +---------------+
> |Element| |/CharacterData/|
> +-------+ +---------------+
> \
> +----+
> |Text|
> +----+
>
> The td element is an Element. Its first child node is a Text.
>
> You try to set the "data" property of something that is not a
> CharacterData. That just creates a new property, but otherwise
> does nothing.
>[/color]

Ok. I see. I'm getting messed up by peering too deeply into my Mozilla DOM
Inspector. Every Element appears as a Node with a text child node whether or
not the text is there.

Why DOM Inspector is showing text nodes when they're not initialized I'm not
sure. I think they must be there in some state anyway. The odd thing is how
this 'sleeping' textnode appears to go unused when you append a text node.
That is, DOM Inspector will show 2 text nodes (that could be normalized I
guess) after appending a text node to a <td> element.

cheers,

Bill