I have a variable which contains a html element:

alert(aData[3]);

gives me:

BLA BLA BLA
<div style="display: none">
 <table>....</table>
</div>

I'm trying to figure out how to get the contents WITHIN the div-tag from the variable aData[3] via jQuery. I tried various things:

elem = $(aData[3]).find("div");
alert(elem.html());

// OR
elem = $(aData[3]).find("div");
alert(elem[0].html());

// OR
elem = $(aData[3]).find("div");
alert($(elem[0]).html());

// OR
elem = $(aData[3], 'div');
alert(elem.html());

Can't get any of those to work. How to the correct version? :( Thanks a lot

I have a variable which contains a html element:

alert(aData[3]);

gives me:

BLA BLA BLA
<div style="display: none">
 <table>....</table>
</div>

I'm trying to figure out how to get the contents WITHIN the div-tag from the variable aData[3] via jQuery. I tried various things:

elem = $(aData[3]).find("div");
alert(elem.html());

// OR
elem = $(aData[3]).find("div");
alert(elem[0].html());

// OR
elem = $(aData[3]).find("div");
alert($(elem[0]).html());

// OR
elem = $(aData[3], 'div');
alert(elem.html());

Can't get any of those to work. How to the correct version? :( Thanks a lot

• javascript
• jquery
• html
• jquery-selectors

Share Improve this question Follow asked Apr 9, 2014 at 8:19 timtim 10.1k2222 gold badges8787 silver badges146146 bronze badges 10

• 1 @DejaVu There are no styles to follow so it doesn't matter. – George Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 8:21
• 1 @tim He means, quite rightly, that styles should be separated by a semi-colon. Although the last property in the block doesn't need one. More here – George Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 8:25
• 1 @tim — He is suggesting that you use ; as a rule terminator in your CSS instead of as a rule separator. It has no bearing on your actual problem. – Quentin Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 8:26
• 1 Ah I see, sure I know that, but for one property, it's not necessary, is it? And yes, actually no relation to my problem in any way... – tim Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 8:27
• 1 @tim That's right, the issue is irrelevant. – George Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 8:28

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3 Answers 3

Sorted by: Reset to default 4

find looks for descendants of elements in the jQuery object, but div is the highest level element in your HTML (it isn't a descendant of anything).

Just don't use find.

elem = $(aData[3]);
alert(elem.html());

You need to wrap your string with another dom object to use .find().

elem = $('<div />',{
  html: aData[3];
}).find("div");
alert(elem);

You can use parseHTML to convert the string into an array of DOM elements.