Question

var arr=[...];

var html = '<input attr="' + serialize(arr) + '">';

I can’t simply join(' ') the arr as there may be white space or other special characters.

How do I do it properly?

Answer 1

You probably want .data, using which you can store any data on a DOM element.

var html = $("<input>");
html.data("something", arr);

Then you can append it somewhere using the insertion methods like .append.

Fetch the data again with:

var arr = html.data("something");

http://jsfiddle.net/UKRcs/

---

An alternative would be using JSON to convert things into a string and setting that as an attribute:

var html = $("<input>").attr("data-something", JSON.stringify(arr));

And the other way round:

var arr = JSON.parse(html.attr("data-something"));

http://jsfiddle.net/UKRcs/1/