I looked at the jQuery source code for the .empty() function:

empty: function() {
        for ( var i = 0, elem; (elem = this[i]) != null; i++ ) {
            // Remove element nodes and prevent memory leaks
            if ( elem.nodeType === 1 ) {
                jQuery.cleanData( elem.getElementsByTagName("*") );
            }

            // Remove any remaining nodes
            while ( elem.firstChild ) {
                elem.removeChild( elem.firstChild );
            }
        }​

Couldn't it be a lot simpler with just changing the innerHTML to an empty string:

empty: function() {
        for ( var i = 0, elem; (elem = this[i]) != null; i++ ) {
                elem.innerHTML = "";
        }​

The empty docs:

Description: Remove all child nodes of the set of matched elements from the DOM.

I looked at the jQuery source code for the .empty() function:

empty: function() {
        for ( var i = 0, elem; (elem = this[i]) != null; i++ ) {
            // Remove element nodes and prevent memory leaks
            if ( elem.nodeType === 1 ) {
                jQuery.cleanData( elem.getElementsByTagName("*") );
            }

            // Remove any remaining nodes
            while ( elem.firstChild ) {
                elem.removeChild( elem.firstChild );
            }
        }​

Couldn't it be a lot simpler with just changing the innerHTML to an empty string:

empty: function() {
        for ( var i = 0, elem; (elem = this[i]) != null; i++ ) {
                elem.innerHTML = "";
        }​

The empty docs:

Description: Remove all child nodes of the set of matched elements from the DOM.

• javascript
• jquery
• html

Share Improve this question Follow edited May 5, 2012 at 23:58 Mike Samuel 121k3030 gold badges227227 silver badges254254 bronze badges asked Apr 24, 2012 at 20:24 gdorongdoron 150k5959 gold badges302302 silver badges371371 bronze badges 2

• It's explained by this ment in the code: // Remove element nodes and prevent memory leaks... – nnnnnn Commented Apr 24, 2012 at 21:28
• @nnnnnn. Yes, I'm actually asking how can it cause a memory leaks... – gdoron Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 22:26

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 11

Just think about .data() expandos and event handlers... By just removing the DOM, you would create memory leaks every time.