How do I choose between innerText or nodeValue?

Question

When I need to change a text within a span element, which one should I use and what is the difference:

var spnDetailDisplay=document.getElementById('spnDetailDisplay');
spnDetailDisplay.innerText=sDetail;

or

 var spnDetailDisplay=document.getElementById('spnDetailDisplay');
 spnDetailDisplay.childNodes[0].nodeValue=sDetail;

Answer 1

For elements with text content, they're the same. See this MDC article for information on nodeValue.

From this article:

If the element has no sub-elements, just text, then it (normally) has one child node, accessed as ElemRef.childNodes[0]. In such precise case, the W3C web standards equivalent of ElemRef.innerText is ElemRef.childNodes[0].nodeValue.