Question

According to this website calling removeChild() in JavaScript causes an Internet Explorer Specific leak called a pseudo-leak.

Sometimes Internet Explorer keeps items in memory after the page is done using them. Although these pseudo-leaks are freed after the user leaves the page, some web pages may be open for long periods of time. To avoid pseudo-leaks, do not use removeChild to remove elements. Instead, set the parent’s innerHTML to “”

Does deleteCell() cause pseudo-leaks the same way that removeChild() does?

Edit: I was able to reproduce this error on IE8. Believe it or not, Microsoft claims to have fixed this problem in IE7.

Answer 1

I don’t have the benefit of being able to look at IE’s source code and confirm, but I imagine if it’s anything like how Chrome implements deleteCell, it uses removeChild internally, which could trigger IE’s pseudo leak. I know older versions of IE had this issue, but I’m not sure if the current versions do.

From chromium source:

void HTMLTableRowElement::deleteCell(int index, ExceptionCode& ec)
{
        ...
        HTMLElement::removeChild(cell.get(), ec);
}