Unlike the .html() method, .text() can be used in both XML and HTML documents. The result of the .text() method is a string containing the combined text of all matched elements. (Due to variations in the HTML parsers in different browsers, the text returned may vary in newlines and other white space.) Consider the following HTML:

<div class="demo-container">
      <div class="demo-box">Demonstration Box</div>
  <ul>
  <li>list item 1</li>
  <li>list <strong>item</strong> 2</li>
  </ul>
  </div>

The code $('div.demo-container').text() would produce the following result:

Demonstration Box list item 1 list item 2

The .text() method cannot be used on form inputs or scripts. To set or get the text value of input or textarea elements, use the .val() method. To get the value of a script element, use the .html() method.

As of jQuery 1.4, the .text() method returns the value of text and CDATA nodes as well as element nodes.

Unlike the .html() method, .text() can be used in both XML and HTML documents.

We need to be aware that this method escapes the string provided as necessary so that it will render correctly in HTML. To do so, it calls the DOM method .createTextNode(), which replaces special characters with their HTML entity equivalents (such as < for <). Consider the following HTML:

<div class="demo-container">
  <div class="demo-box">Demonstration Box</div>
  <ul>
    <li>list item 1</li>
    <li>list <strong>item</strong> 2</li>
  </ul>
</div>

The code $('div.demo-container').text('<p>This is a test.</p>'); will produce the following DOM output:

<div class="demo-container">
&lt;p&gt;This is a test.&lt;/p&gt;
</div>

It will appear on a rendered page as though the tags were exposed, like this:

<p>This is a test</p>

The .text() method cannot be used on input elements. For input field text, use the .val() method.

As of jQuery 1.4, the .text() method allows us to set the text content by passing in a function.

$('ul li').text(function(index) {
  return 'item number ' + (index + 1);
});

Given an unordered list with three <li> elements, this example will produce the following DOM output:

<ul>
  <li>item number 1</li>
  <li>item number 2</li>
  <li>item number 3</li>
</ul>