[javascript] Set content of HTML <span> with Javascript

In a webpage I am calling a WebService that gives me an integer value. I need to display this value in a block of text. I am currently using an HTML <span>.

So far, I've found two methods of putting my value in a span. innerText() is an IE proprietary way of doing it and innerHTML() is a non-standards compliant way, although widely supported.

What is the correct standards compliant way of setting the text between <span> and </span> from Javascript?

To do it without using a JavaScript library such as jQuery, you'd do it like this:

var span = document.getElementById("myspan"),
    text = document.createTextNode(''+intValue);
span.innerHTML = ''; // clear existing
span.appendChild(text);

If you do want to use jQuery, it's just this:

$("#myspan").text(''+intValue);

With modern browsers, you can set the textContent property, see Node.textContent:

var span = document.getElementById("myspan");
span.textContent = "some text";

The Maximally Standards Compliant way to do it is to create a text node containing the text you want and append it to the span (removing any currently extant text nodes).

The way I would actually do it is to use jQuery's .text().