How to add a list item to an existing unordered list

I have code that looks like this:

<div id="header">
    <ul class="tabs">
        <li><a href="/user/view"><span class="tab">Profile</span></a></li>
        <li><a href="/user/edit"><span class="tab">Edit</span></a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

I'd like to use jQuery to add the following to the list:

<li><a href="/user/messages"><span class="tab">Message Center</span></a></li>

I tried this:

$("#content ul li:last").append("<li><a href="/user/messages"><span class="tab">Message Center</span></a></li>");

But that adds the new li inside the last li (just before the closing tag), not after it. What's the best way to add this li?

This would do it:

$("#header ul").append('<li><a href="/user/messages"><span class="tab">Message Center</span></a></li>');

Two things:

• You can just append the <li> to the <ul> itself.
• You need to use the opposite type of quotes than what you're using in your HTML. So since you're using double quotes in your attributes, surround the code with single quotes.

You can also do it in a more 'object' and still easy-to-read way:

$('#content ul').append(
    $('<li>').append(
        $('<a>').attr('href','/user/messages').append(
            $('<span>').attr('class', 'tab').append("Message center")
)));

You don't have to fight with quotes then, but you must keep trace of braces :)

If you are simply adding text in that li, you can use:

 $("#ul").append($("<li>").text("Some Text."));

How about using "after" instead of "append".

$("#content ul li:last").after('<li><a href="/user/messages"><span class="tab">Message Center</span></a></li>');

".after()" can insert content, specified by the parameter, after each element in the set of matched elements.

jQuery comes with the following options which could fulfil your need in this case:

append is used to add an element at the end of the parent div specified in the selector:

$('ul.tabs').append('<li>An element</li>');

prepend is used to add an element at the top/start of the parent div specified in the selector:

$('ul.tabs').prepend('<li>An element</li>');

insertAfter lets you insert an element of your selection next after an element you specify. Your created element will then be put in the DOM after the specified selector closing tag:

$('<li>An element</li>').insertAfter('ul.tabs>li:last');
will result in:
<li><a href="/user/edit"><span class="tab">Edit</span></a></li>
<li>An element</li>

insertBefore will do the opposite of the above:

$('<li>An element</li>').insertBefore('ul.tabs>li:last');
will result in:
<li>An element</li>
<li><a href="/user/edit"><span class="tab">Edit</span></a></li>