insertAdjacentHTML not working with created element

Question

I want to display a table after an h1 with an id of pageHeading. The HTML for the h1 is hardcoded: <h1 id="pageHeading">Table</h1>

const pageHeading = document.querySelector("#pageHeading")

The table is created with Javascript:

const table = document.createElement("table")
table.setAttribute("id", "table")

I tried the following:

document.body.appendChild(table)

This prints the table but after the last HTML element on the page.

Then I tried:

tableHeading.appendChild(table)

This prints the table but INSIDE the h1.

Finally, I tried:

pageHeading.insertAdjacentHTML(
  "afterend",
  table
)

This doesn't print the table at all. Instead I get (after the h1):

[object HTMLTableElement]

Could this be because I'm using .insertAdjacentHTML on the table contents (see full code below)?

const tableHeaders = [{
  titleOne: "Name",
  titleTwo: "Age",
  titleThree: "Nationality",
}, ]

const persons = [{
    name: "James",
    age: "23",
    nationality: "English",
  },

  {
    name: "Isabella",
    age: "21",
    nationality: "Italian",
  },

  {
    name: "Hank",
    age: "25",
    nationality: "American",
  },

  {
    name: "Manon",
    age: "27",
    nationality: "French",
  },
]
const pageHeading = document.querySelector("#pageHeading")

const table = document.createElement("table")
table.setAttribute("id", "table")
/* document.body.appendChild(table) this puts table AFTER the last item in the body <h2>Test</h2> */
/* tableHeading.appendChild(table) this puts table INSIDE <h1 id="tableHeading">Table</h1> */
pageHeading.insertAdjacentHTML(
  "afterend",
  table
) /* this returns: [object HTMLTableElement] */

const headers = tableHeaders.map(header => {
  let ths = `<tr><th>${header.titleOne}</th><th>${header.titleTwo}</th><th>${header.titleThree}</th></tr>`

  table.insertAdjacentHTML("afterbegin", ths)
})

const personDetails = persons.map(person => {
  let tds = `<tr><td>${person.name}</td><td>${person.age}</td><td>${person.nationality}</td></tr>`

  table.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeEnd", tds)
})

<h1 id="pageHeading">Table</h1>

<h2>Test</h2>

Answer 1

Instead of use insertAdjacentHTML you need insertAdjacentElement because is a element not an html string like:

const tableHeaders = [{
  titleOne: "Name",
  titleTwo: "Age",
  titleThree: "Nationality",
}, ]

const persons = [{
    name: "James",
    age: "23",
    nationality: "English",
  },

  {
    name: "Isabella",
    age: "21",
    nationality: "Italian",
  },

  {
    name: "Hank",
    age: "25",
    nationality: "American",
  },

  {
    name: "Manon",
    age: "27",
    nationality: "French",
  },
]
const pageHeading = document.querySelector("#pageHeading")

const table = document.createElement("table")
table.setAttribute("id", "table")
/* document.body.appendChild(table) this puts table AFTER the last item in the body <h2>Test</h2> */
/* tableHeading.appendChild(table) this puts table INSIDE <h1 id="tableHeading">Table</h1> */

pageHeading.insertAdjacentElement(
  "afterend",
  table
) /* this returns: [object HTMLTableElement] */

const headers = tableHeaders.map(header => {
  let ths = `<tr><th>${header.titleOne}</th><th>${header.titleTwo}</th><th>${header.titleThree}</th></tr>`

  table.insertAdjacentHTML("afterbegin", ths)
})

const personDetails = persons.map(person => {
  let tds = `<tr><td>${person.name}</td><td>${person.age}</td><td>${person.nationality}</td></tr>`

  table.insertAdjacentHTML("beforeEnd", tds)
})

<h1 id="pageHeading">Table</h1>

<h2>Test</h2>

Reference:

• insertAdjacentHTML
• insertAdjacentElement