jQuery, get html of a whole element [duplicate]

You can clone it to get the entire contents, like this:

var html = $("<div />").append($("#div1").clone()).html();

Or make it a plugin, most tend to call this “outerHTML”, like this:

jQuery.fn.outerHTML = function() {
  return jQuery('<div />').append(this.eq(0).clone()).html();
};

Then you can just call:

var html = $("#div1").outerHTML();