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jQuery before method with examples
In This Tutorial
The before method
The before method allows adding content before the specified element of HTML.
For example, you have a div or paragraph in your web page and want to add some text content before a div or paragraph, you can use the before method of jQuery to do that.
Syntax of using before method
The simple syntax of using jQuery before method is:
$(“element”).before(“Content to be added”);
Example of using before function with div element
The example below shows how to use before method with div element to add some text. The added text will have some formatting like bold and line break as well. You can add links or other HTML tags as well.
Experience this example online
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<html>
<head>
<script src=“http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.1.min.js”></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
$(“#addtxt”).click(function(){
$(“div”).before(” some text with some <b>bold</b> and <a href=’http://www.example.com’>a link</a> and linebreak<br>”);
});
});
</script>
<style>
.divfind {
border: solid 1px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div>This is div element!
</div>
<hr />
<button id=“addtxt”>Execute before method</button>
</body>
</html>
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Difference between before and prepend methods
Note that, the jQuery before method adds content “before” the boundary of the specified element. Whereas jQuery prepend adds content within the boundary of given element. The example below makes it clearer.
See the difference in example by clicking the link below:
Experience this example online
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<html>
<head>
<script src=“http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.1.min.js”></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
$(“#addtxt”).click(function(){
$(“.divafter”).before(” some text with some <b>bold</b> and <a href=’http://www.example.com’>a link</a> and linebreak<br>”);
});
$(“#addtxtappend”).click(function(){
$(“.divappend”).prepend(” some text with some <b>bold</b> and <a href=’http://www.example.com’>a link</a> and linebreak<br>”);
});
});
</script>
<style>
div {
border: solid 1px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div>This is div element that will show before example!
</div><br /><br />
<div>This is div element that will show prepend example!
</div>
<hr />
<button id=“addtxt”>Execute before method</button>
<button id=“addtxtappend”>Execute prepend method</button>
</body>
</html>
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As you can see, the content added by using before jQuery method adds content outside the border of div element whereas jQuery prepend method adds within the border of the div element.
Also see jQuery append | jQuery after | jQuery click
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