JavaScript code for adding new elements in a dynamic way

Last Updated : 21 Sep, 2021

Javascript is a very important language when it comes to learning how the browser works. Often there are times we would like to add dynamic elements/content to our web pages. This post deals with all of that.

Creation of new element: New elements can be created in JS by using the createElement() method.

Syntax:

document.createElement("<tagName>");  
// Where <tagName> can be any HTML 
// tagName like div, ul, button, etc.

// newDiv element has been created
For Eg: let newDiv = document.createElement("div");

Once the element has been created, let’s move on to the setting of attributes of the newly created element.

Setting the attributes of the created element: Attributes can be set using setAttribute() method.

The syntax and example are as follows:

Element.setAttribute(name, value);
// Where Element is the name of web element. 
// Here, we have created newDiv.
// Where name is the attribute name and 
// value is the value that needs to be set

For Eg: newDiv.setAttribute("class","container");

Example: Elements can be created based on some event like a click. Here’s an example of how to create elements dynamically with an onclick event. This code can be further made into a todo-list!

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html lang="en"> 
  
<head> 
    <meta charset="UTF-8"> 
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> 
    <meta name="viewport" content= 
        "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> 
  
    <style> 
        html, 
        body { 
            height: 100%; 
            width: 100%; 
        } 
  
        .button { 
            display: flex; 
            align-items: center; 
            justify-content: center; 
        } 
  
        .tasks { 
            display: flex; 
            justify-content: center; 
            align-items: center; 
            flex-direction: column; 
            margin-top: 20px; 
        } 
    </style> 
</head> 
  
<body> 
    <div class="button"> 
        <button id="addTask">Add task</button> 
    </div> 
    <div class="tasks"></div> 
    <script type="text/javascript"> 
  
        // Getting the parent element in which 
        // the new div will be created 
        let task = document.getElementsByClassName("tasks"); 
  
        // Getting the addTask button element 
        let addTask = document.getElementById("addTask"); 
          
        // Adding onclick event to the button 
        addTask.addEventListener('click', function () { 
      
            // Traversing through collection of HTML 
            // elements (tasks here) 
            for (let i = 0; i < task.length; i++) { 
                  
                // New div element is created   
                let newDiv = document.createElement("div"); 
                      
                // Setting the attribute of class type to newDiv  
                newDiv.setAttribute("class", "list"); 
                     
                // innerText used to write the text in newDiv  
                newDiv.innerText = "New Div created"; 
                       
                // Finally append the newDiv to the 
                // parent i.e. tasks    
                task[i].append(newDiv); 
            } 
        }) 
    </script> 
</body> 
  
</html> 