JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Name

Document.write( ) — append data to a document

Availability

JavaScript 1.0

Synopsis

                  document.write(value, ...)

Arguments

value

An arbitrary JavaScript value to be appended to document. If the value is not a string, it is converted to one before being appended.

...

Any number (zero or higher) of additional values to be appended (in order) to document.

Description

document .write( ) appends each of its arguments, in order, to document. Any arguments that are not strings are converted to strings before they are written to the end of the document.

Document.write( ) is usually used in one of two ways. First, it can be invoked on the current document within a <script> tag or within a function that is executed while the document is being parsed. In this case, the write( ) method writes its HTML output as if that output appeared literally in the file at the location of the code that invoked the method.

Second, you can use Document.write( ) to dynamically generate the contents of a document for a window other than the current window. In this case, the target document is never in the process of being parsed, and so the output cannot appear “in place” as it does in the case just described. In order for write( ) to output text into a document, that document must be open. You can open a document by explicitly calling the Document.open( ) method. In most cases this is unnecessary, however, because when write( ) is invoked on a document that is closed, it implicitly opens the document. When ...