Create element "in memory", like jQuery does, in D3.js

Question

Instead of doing

d3.select("body").append("svg")

, which most d3.js examples do, I'd like to create an element, and NOT attach it to body or anything right away.

Kind of like $('<div/>') in jQuery.

How can I do this?

Answer 1

// create selection containing unattached div node    
var sel = d3.create('svg');  

and if you want just the node...

// retrieve unattached node
var node = d3.create('svg').node();

Answer 2

Create the element using document.createElement() and pass it to d3 as usual.

In console:

> a = document.createElement("div")
<div>​</div>​
> d3.select(a).append("svg")
[Array[1]]   
> a
<div>​
<svg>​</svg>​
</div>​