Question

I have an object with some address information in it that I would like to append() to an HTML table.

The table starts like this:

<table class="shipping_information" border="1">

</table>

And then I put my address information into another table (line 5 here), and put that table into a <td>. I’m trying to make it so that there is a maximum number of <td>s (here 2). If it is over 2, a new <tr> will be appended.

function add_shipping_address_to_shipping_container(address_obj, shipping_container) {
    var append_to_table = "";
    var table = shipping_container.find('table.shipping_information');
    var max_td = 2;
    var formatted_address = format_address(address_obj); //returns a table with the address

    //are there any rows in the table
    var is_tr = table.find('tr.shipping_address_container_table').length;
    if (!is_tr) {
        //no tr so append tr and td
        //colspan should be max_td
        append_to_table = "<tr class='add_container'><td class='add_container'>" + formatted_address +"</td></tr>"
    } else {
        //there is a tr
        var last_tr = table.find('tr.add_container:last');
        //number of tds in the last row
        var num_td = last_tr.find('td.add_container').length;
        if (num_td >= max_td) {
            append_to_table = "<tr class='add_container'><td class='add_container'>" + formatted_address + "</td></tr>";
        } else {
            append_to_table = "<td class='add_container'>" + formatted_address + "</td>";
        }

    }
    table.append(append_to_table);
}

However, the <td>s aren’t appending as I would imagine. It makes a new <tr> each time. when I print the variable append_to_table to the console, it looks right. <tr><td></td></tr> when there should be, and just <td></td> when that should be the case. Is jquery or chrome automatically appending a new <tbody> each time or something?

jsbin

Answer 1

When you are checking for a new row, you are searching for a class shipping_address_container_table but when you are creating the new row. You are only adding a tr with class add_container.

Your current code isn’t doing anything except the first portion (!is_tr always == true). That’s probably your problem.

Also, I moved the append for existing tr elements to the tr instead of the table to make sure jquery doesn’t automatically wrap the td in a new tr.

This worked for me:

function add_shipping_address_to_shipping_container(address_obj, shipping_container) {
    var append_to_table = "";
    var table = shipping_container.find('table.shipping_information');
    var max_td = 2;
    var formatted_address = format_address(address_obj); //returns a table with the address
    //are there any rows in the table
    var is_tr = table.find('tr.add_container').length;
    if (!is_tr) {
        //no tr so append tr and td
        //colspan should be max_td
        append_to_table = "<tr class='add_container'><td class='add_container'>" + formatted_address + "</td></tr>";
    table.append(append_to_table);
    } else {
        //there is a tr
        var last_tr = table.find('tr.add_container:last');
        //number of tds in the last row
        var num_td = last_tr.find('td.add_container').length;
        if (num_td >= max_td) {
            append_to_table = "<tr class='add_container'><td class='add_container'>" + formatted_address + "</td></tr>";
    table.append(append_to_table);
        } else {
            append_to_table = "<td class='add_container'>" + formatted_address + "</td>";
    last_tr.append(append_to_table);
        }

    }
}

function format_address(address_obj){

    var address_table = "<table border='1'>";

    address_table += ("<tr><td class='shipping_address_table'>" + address_obj.attn + "</td></tr>");
    address_table += ("<tr><td class='shipping_address_table'>" + address_obj.company_name + "</td></tr>");
    address_table += ("<tr><td class='shipping_address_table'>" + address_obj.address_1 + "</td></tr>");

    address_table += "</table>";

    return address_table;
}

$(document).ready(function(){
  $('body').on('click', '#button', function(){
  var address_obj = {
    attn : "sample attention",
    company_name : "sample company",
    address_1 : "sample line 1"
  },
  shipping_container = $('#wrapper');

  add_shipping_address_to_shipping_container(address_obj, shipping_container);
  });
});