If a string is passed as the parameter to $(), jQuery examines the string to see if it looks like HTML (i.e., it has <tag ... > somewhere within the string). If not, the string is interpreted as a selector expression, as explained above. But if the string appears to be an HTML snippet, jQuery attempts to create new DOM elements as described by the HTML. Then a jQuery object is created and returned that refers to these elements. You can perform any of the usual jQuery methods on this object:

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1. $('<p id="test">My <em>new</em> text</p>').appendTo('body');

When the HTML is more complex than a single tag without attributes, as it is in the above example, the actual creation of the elements is handled by the browser's innerHTML mechanism. In most cases, jQuery creates a new <div> element and sets the innerHTML property of the element to the HTML snippet that was passed in. When the parameter has a single tag, such as $('<img />') or $('<a></a>'), jQuery creates the element using the native JavaScript createElement() function.

When passing in complex HTML, some browsers may not generate a DOM that exactly replicates the HTML source provided. For example, Internet Explorer prior to version 8 will convert all href properties on links to absolute URLs, and Internet Explorer prior to version 9 will not correctly handle HTML5 elements without the addition of a separate compatibility layer.

To ensure cross-platform compatibility, the snippet must be well-formed. Tags that can contain other elements should be paired with a closing tag:

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1. $('<a href="http://jquery.com"></a>');

Alternatively, jQuery allows XML-like tag syntax (with or without a space before the slash):

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1. $('<a/>');

Tags that cannot contain elements may be quick-closed or not:

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1. $('<img />');
2. $('<input>');