Why you should use textContent instead of innerHTML ?

Note : This is Copied Content From ChatGPT for my own Reference : )

ChatGPT

Using textContent instead of innerHTML is generally recommended for several reasons:

1. Security: When you use innerHTML, you are essentially inserting HTML content into the DOM. If the content comes from untrusted sources or user inputs, it can lead to security vulnerabilities like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. textContent, on the other hand, treats the content as plain text, reducing the risk of script injections.

2. Performance: Updating the textContent property is faster than using innerHTML. When you set innerHTML, the browser needs to parse and render the HTML content, which can be computationally expensive. textContent, being plain text, has a simpler and quicker rendering process.

3. Content Preservation: When using innerHTML, any existing DOM elements inside the container will be destroyed and replaced with the new HTML content. This can lead to unintended side effects, such as event listeners getting removed. textContent, however, preserves the existing DOM structure and only updates the text content.

4. Avoiding Potential Bugs: When using innerHTML, you might accidentally overwrite critical DOM elements or attributes, leading to unexpected behavior. textContent focuses solely on the text content, reducing the chances of unintentional side effects.

5. Consistency and Readability: By using textContent, you clearly indicate that you are dealing with plain text content and not HTML markup, making the code more readable and easier for other developers to understand your intentions.

In summary, using textContent is generally safer, faster, and more predictable when dealing with text content in the DOM. However, there are cases where innerHTML may be appropriate, such as when you intentionally need to insert HTML markup or when you're working with trusted content from a known source. Always consider the context and security implications when choosing between textContent and innerHTML.