Creating and deleting elements in the DOM is an essential operation for any dynamic web application. This capability allows developers to add new content and components to their web pages dynamically, as well as remove elements that are no longer needed.

Creating Elements

To create a new element in the DOM, we use the document.createElement method.

document.createElement

This method creates a new element of the specified type.

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Inserting Elements into the DOM

Once we have created a new element, we need to insert it into the DOM. We can use several methods for this:

• appendChild
• insertBefore
• insertAdjacentElement, insertAdjacentHTML, and insertAdjacentText

appendChild

Adds a new node as the last child of an element.

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insertBefore

Adds a new node before an existing node.

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insertAdjacentElement, insertAdjacentHTML, and insertAdjacentText

These methods allow us to insert new nodes at specific positions in relation to a reference element.

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[Placeholder: Image showing the difference between appendChild, insertBefore, and insertAdjacentElement with graphical examples.]

Deleting Elements

We can delete elements from the DOM using removeChild or remove.

removeChild

This method removes a specific child from an element.

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remove

This method removes the element itself from the DOM.

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Complete Example

Below is a complete example that creates, inserts, and deletes elements in the DOM:

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Conclusion

The ability to create and delete elements in the DOM is crucial for building dynamic and responsive web applications. It allows us to efficiently add new content and remove unnecessary components in real-time. In the upcoming chapters, we will explore how to handle events in the DOM to make our applications even more interactive.