Display javascript as code snippet

Question

What I'm trying to do is display a snippet of javascript on the page, and not have it run, just display as a code snippet for folks to copy. I load google's Prettify, then in the page I have this code:

    <pre class="prettyprint">
    <script>
    $(document).ready(function(){
      setTimeout(function(){
        console.log('deleting cookie');
        $.cookie('cookie',null,{domain: document.domain});
     },1000);
    });
    </script>
   </pre>

But this code just executes and doesn't display the JS snippet. What am I missing here?

Try viewing the source HTML of this question, that'd show you one way. — Adrian Wragg, Jul 19 '13 at 18:41

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 19 '13 at 18:42

You need to convert your < and > characters to HTML entities like so:

<pre class="prettyprint">
  &lt;script&gt;
    $(document).ready(function(){
      setTimeout(function(){
        console.log('deleting cookie');
        $.cookie('cookie',null,{domain: document.domain});
      },1000);
    });
  &lt;/script&gt;
</pre>

I would also recommend wrapping the code in <code> tags in addition to the existing <pre> tags.

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 19 '13 at 18:42

The problem you have is that you are entering HTML and you want it to not be treated as HTML. Specifically, the opening <script> element.

In order to enter HTML that will not be parsed as HTML, you need to encode characters that are special to HTML. For instance < is encoded as <, > is encoded as >, and & is encoded as &.

So, to output the following without it being parsed as HTML:

<script>...</script>

...you need to enter:

&lt;script&gt;...&lt;/script&gt;

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 19 '13 at 18:42

It's running because of the <script> tags. You should encode them:

<pre class="prettyprint">
&lt;script&gt;
$(document).ready(function(){
  setTimeout(function(){
    console.log('deleting cookie');
    $.cookie('cookie',null,{domain: document.domain});
 },1000);
});
&lt;/script&gt;
</pre>

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 19 '13 at 18:42

0

use <script> and </script> for <script> tag

answered Jul 19 '13 at 18:42

Moazzam Khan

3,130
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jongo45 · Answer 5 · 2013-07-19T19:00:49.147

Let the textContent property (or createTextNode) do all the heavy lifting of encoding whatever text you need to insert into dom:

var sampleCode="<script> $(document).ready(function(){ setTimeout(function(){ console.log('deleting cookie'); $.cookie('cookie',null,{domain: document.domain}); },1000); }); </script>";
var pre=document.createElement("pre");
pre.textContent=sampleCode;
pre.className="prettyprint";
document.body.appendChild(pre);

Display javascript as code snippet

5 Answers5

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