adding a line break using javascript

Question

I am working on an assignment for school. I have everything working the way it should be. The only thing that is wrong is how the output is formatted. I am not understanding why I am receiving the output formatted the way it is. I am using javascript, and I am creating nodes and appending them as a child element. My main goal is for each piece of information to be formatted and placed on its own line. this is my javascript function.

function createUserid() { var firstString = window.prompt ( "Enter first name", "" ); //documentwrite var lower = firstString.toLowerCase(); // firstString.substring(0,4) // firstString.concat var lastString = window.prompt ( "Enter last name", "" ); var lowlast = lastString.toLowerCase(); var socialString = window.prompt ( "Enter social security number without dashes", "" ); var ln = lowlast.substring(0,4); //first 4 of last name var ls = socialString.substring(5,9); //last 4 of social var fs = socialString.substring(0,5); //first 5 of social var fn = lower.substring(0,4); //first 4 of first name //var user = docoument.write("<p>" + "Username: " + lastString + //var pass = <p>"Password: " + //var myDiv = document.getElementById('here'); //myDiv.innerHTML = ____ ; var e = document.getElementById('info'); var o = document.getElementById('here'); //creating 2 elements: p, br var newPara = document.createElement('p'); var tBR = document.createElement('br'); //prepare text nodes var first = document.createTextNode('First name: ' + firstString); var last = document.createTextNode('Last name: ' + lastString); var social = document.createTextNode('Social Security #: ' + socialString); var userN = document.createTextNode('Username: ' + ln + ls); var passW = document.createTextNode('Password: ' + fs + fn); //put together paragraph newPara.appendChild(first); newPara.appendChild(tBR); newPara.appendChild(last); newPara.appendChild(tBR); newPara.appendChild(social); newPara.appendChild(tBR); newPara.appendChild(userN); newPara.appendChild(tBR); newPara.appendChild(passW); //insert into div id of info document.getElementById('info').appendChild(newPara); o.style.display = 'none'; e.style.display = 'block'; }

this is the output I am receiving enter image description here

this is how the output is supposed to look. enter image description here

DhruvPathak · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-12 08:21:16Z

You are appending same node again and again.

newPara.appendChild(first); newPara.appendChild(tBR); newPara.appendChild(last); newPara.appendChild(tBR); <--- this node gets moved, since you append it again. newPara.appendChild(social); newPara.appendChild(tBR); newPara.appendChild(userN); newPara.appendChild(tBR); <--- this is where tBR will be at last. newPara.appendChild(passW);

Instead do this :

 var first = document.createTextNode('First name: ' + firstString + '<br/>');

Or this :

 newPara.appendChild(first); newPara.appendChild(document.createElement('br')); newPara.appendChild(last); newPara.appendChild(document.createElement('br')); .................................

Documentation here : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/Node.appendChild

Adds a node to the end of the list of children of a specified parent node. If the node already exists it is removed from current parent node, then added to new parent node.

Oh ok. I understand now about the nodes now. I have already tried what you had suggest, but that does not work. It outputs the actual text <br/> in the line as well
Your second suggestion works out perfectly. I did not think you could do that for some reason. Thanks for your help!
That might be because you were creating text node which will take '<br/>' as a string.

PleaseStand · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-12 08:25:33Z

If child has already been inserted, element.appendChild(child) removes it from where it was before inserting it at its new location.

Use node.cloneNode(true) to make copies of the child, or just use document.createElement('br') again and again (possibly in a loop to avoid repeating yourself).

suresh gopal · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-12 08:24:15Z

Try this:

var first = document.createTextNode('First name: ' + firstString + '<br>'); var last = document.createTextNode('Last name: ' + lastString + '<br>'); var social = document.createTextNode('Social Security #: ' + socialString + '<br>'); var userN = document.createTextNode('Username: ' + ln + ls + '<br>'); var passW = document.createTextNode('Password: ' + fs + fn + '<br>');

The asker will end up with a literal <br> in the rendered output.

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