How do I convert a HTML table object to a string?

Question

I am scraping some HTML off a webpage and I'm trying to scrape off a table element off the page and convert it to JSON.

I found a node js library that does this but it requires a string as an argument. How do I turn the HTML object into a string? When I call the toString() function on it, it returns:

"[object HTMLTableElement]"

My code is :

let data = await page.evaluate(() => {
    componentTable = document.querySelector('table.xs-col-12');
    componentTable = componentTable.toString()
    return{
        componentTable
    }
})
console.log(data)

probably you need innerHTML property

Iłya Bursov
– Iłya Bursov

2020-08-24 19:09:08 +00:00
Commented Aug 24, 2020 at 19:09 — Iłya Bursov
– Iłya Bursov, Commented Aug 24, 2020 at 19:09
I'd recommend outerHTML to get the whole table

ControlAltDel
– ControlAltDel

2020-08-24 19:12:18 +00:00
Commented Aug 24, 2020 at 19:12 — ControlAltDel
– ControlAltDel, Commented Aug 24, 2020 at 19:12

PeterKA · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-25 02:25:35Z

3

To get all the HTML - including the element in question - as a string change:

componentTable.toString()

To:

componentTable.outerHTML

edited Aug 25, 2020 at 2:25

answered Aug 24, 2020 at 19:14

PeterKA

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2 Comments

Dmitriy Gusev Over a year ago

can get this result in jquery not javascript?

PeterKA Over a year ago

How about $('<div/>').append( componentTable ).html()? See jQuery: outer html

Luke Storry · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-24 19:12:33Z

1

Just converting a HTMLElement to a string with toString() will give the object name, like you have seen.

You probably want to use innerHTML

return componentTable.innerHTML will give you a string of the html that is in that table, which depending on the node library you have found, may or may not be sufficient.

It's worth looking through the docs of that library, as they probably have an example for doing this.

answered Aug 24, 2020 at 19:12

Luke Storry

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Comments

Chris Brampton · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-24 19:22:39Z

0

you want to use innerHtml, that is the key

answered Aug 24, 2020 at 19:22

Chris Brampton

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