I've encountered an issue where `innerText` gives different results on Safari compared to Firefox and Chrome. I'm using this simple check:
1. `div = document.querySelector(' ... ');`
2. `if (div) {`
3. `if (div.innerText == 'Notes') alert('here');`
4. `console.log('checking div', div.innerText, 0);`
5. `}`
In Firefox and Chrome, my alert pops up as expected, but in Safari, it doesn't trigger. When I log `innerText` in Safari, it looks correct, but it seems to have a newline at the end. I also noticed that Safari's JavaScript engine might be handling trailing new lines (13,10) differently.
To fix this, I added `trim()` to my condition:
`if (div.innerText.trim() == 'Notes') alert('here');`
This change works across all browsers. I'm curious why I need to use `trim()` in Safari but not in the others, and if there's a better solution to avoid requiring it all the time. Any insights would be appreciated!
3 Answers
It's interesting how cross-browser compatibility issues pop up, especially for something as seemingly straightforward as text handling. If you're frequently running into this issue, you might want to consider normalizing your text inputs all the time, not just when you're comparing them. This could reduce the number of times you have to rely on `trim()`. But, yes, trimming before comparison is a solid practice for consistency!
Safari tends to handle whitespace a bit differently than Firefox and Chrome. It looks like the newline character is causing your string comparison to fail in Safari. Using `trim()` removes those unwanted spaces and newline characters, which is why it resolves the issue. It's a good practice to use `trim()` when you're not sure about the content you're comparing, especially when dealing with user-generated or dynamic content. It's not always needed in other browsers, but considering how different engines work, adding `trim()` could save you from future headaches!
The difference you're seeing might also be due to how `innerText` is implemented in different browsers. Safari may be more sensitive to whitespace variations. It's somewhat common for certain elements or text nodes to have extra spaces or newlines that aren't as apparent at first glance. Since `innerText` may include line breaks or other whitespace, using `trim()` is a solid way to standardize your results. Just remember that if you get in the habit of trimming whenever you access `innerText`, you'll have fewer surprises across browsers.
That makes sense! I guess when in doubt, trimming it is safer. Thanks for clarifying!