[jshint] "document.write can be a form of eval."

[littlebigman]

Hello

I'm learning JavaScript by reading "The Definitive Guide".

I saw JSHint and JSLint recommended to catch syntax errors, but I don't understand why they don't like this code:

var s = "hello world!"; // A string
var word = s.substring(s.indexOf(" ") + 1, s.length); // Use string properties
document.write(word);

Here's the report:

Line 3: document.write(word);
document.write can be a form of eval.

Why is document.write() wrong, and what else should I use to simply output something to the browser?

Thank you.

[xelawho]

You can google for why it is wrong - much has been written on the subject. The simplest way to output is by giving an element like a div an ID and doing document.getElementById("theid").innerHTML=word;

If you are using a modern browser you can also log to the console by doing console.log(word);

Further along the line you may want to explore createElement(), but that is more complicated and results are very ambiguous as to whether it is better.

[littlebigman]

Thanks for the infos. I'll use getElementById().

As for not using document.write(), I found this: "Why is document.write considered a 'bad practice'?"