How to convert an HTML element to a string, including the opening and closing tags?

Suppose I have the following HTML element:

<span id='kuku' class='lala bubu'开发者_StackOverflow value='xyz'>some text</span>

I know that .html() returns the inner part of the element, i.e. some text.

How could I get the whole element as string, containing <span>...</span>?

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Most browsers support the element.outerHTML property. You may also want to check out the following Stack Overflow post for an alternative solution (for non IE browsers):

• How do I do OuterHTML in firefox?

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Try this:

alert($('#kuku').clone().wrapAll("<div/>").parent().html());

• clones the element you want
• wraps it in a div
• selects the parent (the new div)
• gets the HTML

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You can also do it like this:

alert( $('<div>').append( $("#kuku").clone() ).html() );

This one creates an empty div and appends a copy / clone of the element with id kuku to it. It then returns the innerHTML of that previously empty div, which now has in it precisely the HTML you are after.

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Simply get the owner of the span. So use the id of the owner/container of the span and use

document.getElementById("urSpanOwnerID").innerHTML