Question

What does the selector <div/> syntax mean in this code? I’ve seen selectors like div or #someId but I’m confused what the <div/> means

    function log( message ) {
        $( "<div/>" ).text( message ).prependTo( "#log" );
        $( "#log" ).scrollTop( 0 );
    }

Answer 1

It means “create a jQuery-wrapped div element on the fly”.

See http://api.jquery.com/jQuery/

From the above:

jQuery( html [, ownerDocument] )

Description: Creates DOM elements on the fly from the provided string
of raw HTML.

Later…

When the parameter has a single tag, such as $('<img />') or
$('<a></a>'), jQuery creates the element using the native JavaScript
createElement() function.

So basically, it’s like doing:

$(document.createElement("div")).text("blahblah");