Question

jQuery has an .after() method, and also an .insertAfter() method.

What’s the difference between them? I think I can use .after() to insert elements after a selected element (or elements). Is that right? What’s .insertAfter() for?

Answer 1

They are mutual opposites.

‘after‘ inserts the argument after the selector.

‘insertAfter‘ inserts the selector after the argument.

Here is an example of the same thing done with:

insertafter():

<div class="container">
  <h2>Greetings</h2>
  <div class="inner">Hello</div>
  <div class="inner">Goodbye</div>
</div>
$( "<p>Test</p>" ).insertAfter( ".inner" );
Each inner <div> element gets this new content:
<div class="container">
  <h2>Greetings</h2>
  <div class="inner">Hello</div>
  <p>Test</p>
  <div class="inner">Goodbye</div>
  <p>Test</p>
</div>

after():

<div class="container">
  <h2>Greetings</h2>
  <div class="inner">Hello</div>
  <div class="inner">Goodbye</div>
</div>
$( ".inner" ).after( "<p>Test</p>" );

<div class="container">
  <h2>Greetings</h2>
  <div class="inner">Hello</div>
  <p>Test</p>
  <div class="inner">Goodbye</div>
  <p>Test</p>
</div>