Why will this code not work? I have spent a long time trying to figure this out

Question

This is the start of my JavaScript Code

   var para = document.createElement("p");
    var node = document.createTextNode("This is new.");
    para.appendChild(node);
    var element = document.getElementById("test");
    element.appendChild(para);

Below is the body

          <div id="test"> </div>

P.S. I am fairly new to JavaScript and thank you for your time.

It worked for me.. https://jsfiddle.net/p8oqh4vp/ make sure you included the .js file — Srinath, Mar 27 '15 at 18:55
Where are you loading/executing this code? What else have you tried? Can you provide more? — Tui Popenoe, Mar 27 '15 at 18:55
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14028959/why-does-jquery-or-a-dom-method-such-as-getelementbyid-not-find-the-element — Teemu, Mar 27 '15 at 18:57

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '15 at 18:56

0

I guess you want to execute your function on load, otherwise you can't get your element with id test form the DOM, because it doesn't exist before the page is loaded:

window.onload=function(){
   var para = document.createElement("p");
   var node = document.createTextNode("This is new.");
   para.appendChild(node);
   var element = document.getElementById("test");
   element.appendChild(para);
}

answered Mar 27 '15 at 18:56

nicael

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Thank you. I used functions before, and I did not realize it had to be a function. Now I know, and I am very thankful for you figuring out my problem. – Jim Mar 27 '15 at 19:12

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 27 '15 at 18:58

This seems to work fine using jsfiddle, there may be something else not posted that is interfering with the example you gave.

http://jsfiddle.net/dkLyfzze/

var para = document.createElement("p");
    var node = document.createTextNode("This is new.");
    para.appendChild(node);
    var element = document.getElementById("test");
    element.appendChild(para);

<div id="test"> </div>

Why will this code not work? I have spent a long time trying to figure this out

2 Answers2