what does $('<div/>') do?

html, jquery

Solution

It used to create a `div` element. Its short cut to `<div></div>`.

For example:

$('<div/>', {id: 'hello', 'class': 'new', html: 'New div'}).appendTo('#target');

will create div with `id: hello`, `class: new` with html `New div` and append to `#target`.

DEMO

More details

It means "create a jQuery-wrapped div element on the fly".

When the parameter has a single tag, such as `$('<div />')` or `$('<a></a>')`, jQuery creates the element using the native JavaScript `createElement()` function.

As result it will look like:

$(document.createElement("div"));

For detail see here

Problem

I saw this in jQuery tools in the tooltip script. What is `<div/>` ? I've never seen the backslash used that way. Probably going to get some down votes, but I must know.

Original source