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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.getElementById('container');
container.data = "Data in cell";

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

var label = document.createTextNode("Data in cell");
container.appendChild(label);

which seems to actually leave me with two text nodes.


Thanks,

Bill

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

So I have ...

<td id=container>&nbsp;</td>

then I can do ..

var container = document.getElementById('container');
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." <> wrote in message
news:6c9c3$3fb17835$44a52955$ rvers.com...
> 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.getElementById('container');
> container.data = "Data in cell";
>
> but can only seem to do it like this ...
>
> var label = document.createTextNode("Data in cell");
> container.appendChild(label);
>
> which seems to actually leave me with two text nodes.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bill
>
>

"Bill M." <> writes:

[topposting fixed]
> "Bill M." <> wrote in message
> news:6c9c3$3fb17835$44a52955$ rvers.com...

>> I've got a <td id="container"> and want to set the text in this cell like
>> ...
>>
>> var container = document.getElementById('container');
>> container.data = "Data in cell";

If the td has a text node inside it, you can use
container.firstChild.nodeValue = "Data in cell";

>> but can only seem to do it like this ...
>>
>> var label = document.createTextNode("Data in cell");
>> container.appendChild(label);

That works too.

>> which seems to actually leave me with two text nodes.

It does. You can remove the existing text node first:
container.removeChild(container.firstChild);


> Ok ... It appears that you need *something* to start with between the <td>
> and the </td>
>
> So I have ...
>
> <td id=container>&nbsp;</td>
>
> then I can do ..
>
> var container = document.getElementById('container');
> container.data = "Data in cell";

Does it work? I didn't think the td element had a "data" property.
However,
container.firstChild.data = "Data in cell";
would work (equivalent to .nodeValue).

> 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.

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 -
DHTML Death Colors: <URL:http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/rasterTriangleDOM.html>
'Faith without judgement merely degrades the spirit divine.'

[snip]

> Does it work? I didn't think the td element had a "data" property.
> However,
> container.firstChild.data = "Data in cell";
> would work (equivalent to .nodeValue).

Sorry my BAD; I left out the firstChild. However, this still appears not to
work unless there is some text already there.

>
> > 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.
>
> 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.
>

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