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john larson
16,594 Pointssimpler form of the print function
I like this simpler form of the print function
function print(message) {
document.getElementById("print").innerHTML = message;
}
anyone know the advantage of Daves way as he presents it in this video?
function print(message) {
var div = document.getElementById("print");
div.innerHTML = message;
}
5 Answers

Alec Plummer
15,181 PointsThere is no advantage to doing it the second way unless you plan on using the variable div more than once in the function. For example;
// its much easier to define document.getElementById once
function print(message) {
var div = document.getElementById("print");
div.innerHTML = message;
div.innerHTML += message.length;
div.innerHTML += message.toUpperCase();
}
// or else you would be doing this...which would really suck!
function print(message) {
document.getElementById("print").innerHTML = message;
document.getElementById("print").innerHTML += message.length;
document.getElementById("print").innerHTML += message.toUpperCase();
}

Tonye Jack
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 12,469 Pointsokay to print to the page
with a
<div id="print"></div>
and you want to change print to with the message data in that div. If you use jQuery not JavaScript
it will look something like: jQuery
$('#print').innerHTML= message;
or
var div = $('#print');
div.innerHTML = message;
with JavaScript:
document.getElementById('print').innerHTML = message;
or
var div = document.getElementById('print');
div.innerHTML = message;

Tonye Jack
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 12,469 Pointsjquery $('#print'); far shorter
but
document.getElementById("print").innerHTML = message;
works no advantage just that if the message location is to change you can separate the div location in the decalartion

john larson
16,594 PointsTonye, I'm picturing this. So we have an element with the id of print on the page. $("#print")something goes here I'm pretty sure, but I don't know what... Okay, so I took a peek at stack Overflow and now I'm not sure if you are referring to print to the page or print out like a printer?

john larson
16,594 Points$('#print').innerHTML= message; It's a mix of j Query and pure JavaScript? .innerHTML is a js thing? And thank you.

john larson
16,594 Points$("#display").text("Print to page, got it");
Thanks for taking the time to do explore this with me.

Tonye Jack
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 12,469 PointsSure anytime yeah js libraries have similarities and differences.