How to get the HTML for a DOM element in javascript

dom, html, javascript

Solution

Expanding on jldupont's answer, you could create a wrapping element on the fly:

var target = document.getElementById('myElement');
var wrap = document.createElement('div');
wrap.appendChild(target.cloneNode(true));
alert(wrap.innerHTML);

I am cloning the element to avoid having to remove and reinsert the element in the actual document. This might be expensive if the element you wish to print has a very large tree below it, though.

Problem

Imagine I have the following HTML: ``` <div><span><b>This is in bold</b></span></div> ``` I want to get the HTML for the div, including the div itself. Element.innerHTML only returns: ``` <span>...</span> ``` Any ideas? Thanks

Original source