# IE tries to be helpful when using JavaScript to set the href attribute

> When using JavaScript to set the href attribute of an anchor tag, IE sometimes updates the inner HTML. Why does this happen and what are some solutions?

- Author: Curtis Miller
- Published: 2010-06-17
- Categories: javascript, how-to
- Canonical URL: https://millarian.com/posts/ie-tries-to-be-helpful-when-using-javascript-to-set-the-href-attribute/

Have you ever tried to set an anchor tag's `href` attribute using JavaScript? It's pretty easy, even without a JavaScript library (jQuery, Prototype, etc.). All you need to do is find (or create) the element and then set the href attribute to the desired text.

[Code sample on GitHub Gist](https://gist.github.com/436998)

Now, try executing the following in IE:

[Code sample on GitHub Gist](https://gist.github.com/437011)

What would you expect to be the value of `link.innerHTML`? Turns out that it is the same as the href value, 'http://flatterline.com'. It seems that, on IE only, if the inner HTML of an anchor tag looks like a URL, then upon replacing the href, it will also replace the inner HTML. Try the same experiment, but with link text that does not look like a URL:

[Code sample on GitHub Gist](https://gist.github.com/437016)

Inspecting the innerHTML value will show that it was not replaced.

This is a browser level quirk, so using a JavaScript library won't save from this unless your library has specifically made a special case for this. I originally saw this when using jQuery and thought it might be a problem with the jQuery framework.

I think the best workaround here is that when modifying an anchor tag with JavaScript, set attributes first, then set the link text.

**What do you think? Have a different workaround or solution?**