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JavaScript jQuery Basics (2014) Creating a Mobile Drop Down Menu Perform: Part 1

Kevin Beall
Kevin Beall
13,828 Points
Posted by Kevin Beall
Kevin Beall
13,828 Points

how does the .append() function work?

I am a little confused about how the append function works. I understand that it adds the content to the end of the <div> for example.

Where i'm confused is....

var $select = $("<select></select>");
var $option = $("<option></option>");
$select.append($option);

The way I understand this is that the <option> goes inside the <select>. But how does this happen? If we are appending <option> to the end of <select> does it not show like this?

<select></select>
<option></option>

how does it do this?

<select>
     <option></option>
</select>

1 Answer

Sean T. Unwin
Sean T. Unwin
28,690 Points
Sean T. Unwin
Sean T. Unwin
28,690 Points

Append places content before the end, yet inside the parent. This means that if there was other content within a div, for example, the appended content would be after the existing content, but before the closing div tag.

I hope that clears things up a little for you.