@Josh Powell - string concatenation is plenty fast 99% of the time and a lot more readable. Yes string concatenation is more readable and 99% faster for normal usage. But looping and concatenate a huge chunk in this particular case is slower. Reason: every + between 2 strings returns a new string before concatenating with other strings. Array.prototype.join does not have that problem. You just need more than 6 string concatenation (subject to string length and debate) and it will be a good choice for Array.prototype.join to take over.
- W3C DOM Node creation is much slower then inserting via innerHTML, especially as you add more nodes. It doesn't matter how fast the nodes are created, it will always be slower to create, adjust, and insert 10,000 nodes then one string. That's old school thinking. Please refer to my original post, I am talking about Chrome's v8 engine and browser detection. You will be pleasantly surprised. See RobG's comment too. @RobG Thanks for benchmarking.
