Replace an element while preserving its position.

jQuery: replaceWith swaps an entire node.

JavaScript example.html
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<div><span>Old</span><b>After</b></div>
<script src="jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$('span').replaceWith($('<em>').text('New'));
</script>
</body>
</html>

Expected output EXAMPLE

The “div” element displays “NewAfter”.
No matches remain for the “span” element.

Details

Save as example.html beside jquery.min.js (jQuery 3.5.1). The browser test uses that local library and checks the resulting behavior. replaceWith swaps an entire node.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · Chromium 141.0.7390.37 · libc6 2.39-0ubuntu8.9; Playwright 1.56.0; jQuery 3.5.1

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Unprivileged snippet process, external networking disabled, read-only root filesystem, and a fresh temporary working directory. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel
x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale
uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation
Chromium: open example.html; execute the published browser assertions
Container image ID
sha256:32dc2d998158b6554c99b73b533f423696a0f3e31e8cbea9db10b5eee9a2fadd
Code SHA-256
db5b511f0b2c36b3daf309fa06883615c73768dec63a27b39484f54514c332ce
Dependencies
libc6 2.39-0ubuntu8.9; Playwright 1.56.0; jQuery 3.5.1

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

# No input files required.

Observed standard output

Expected output describes the rendered page. The standard-output record below is the browser test harness receipt; the additional assertions check the result and interactions.

Replace an element while preserving its position: browser checks passed.

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Shape/content assertions. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.

Additional assertions that passed

Checks recorded by the test harness. Where Python assertions are shown, browser cases use Playwright and simulator cases may inspect pin transitions: result.stdout is captured output, work is the temporary directory, and Path is pathlib.Path. The harness also imports json and csv.

assert await page.locator('div').inner_text()=='NewAfter'
assert await page.locator('span').count()==0