Test if an element can contain text

Question

Is there a clean and robust way in which I can test (using pure javascript or also jQuery) if an HTML element can contain some text?

For instance, <br>, <hr> or <tr> cannot contain text nodes, while <div>, <td> or <span> can.

The simplest way to test this property is to control the tag names. But is this the best solution? I think it is one of the worst...

EDIT: In order to clarify the sense of the question, need to point out that the perfect answer should consider two problems:

1. According to HTML standards, can the element contain a text node?
2. If the element contains some text, will it be shown?

Obviously, there is a sub-answer for each point of the previous list.

Answer 1

The W3 standard for "void elements" specifies:

Void elements
area, base, br, col, embed, hr, img, input, keygen, link, menuitem, meta, param, source, track, wbr

And apparently there's some unofficial tags as well.

You can make a black list and use .prop('tagName') to get the tag name:

(function ($) {
    var cannotContainText = ['AREA', 'BASE', 'BR', 'COL', 'EMBED', 'HR', 'IMG', 'INPUT', 'KEYGEN', 'LINK', 'MENUITEM', 'META', 'PARAM', 'SOURCE', 'TRACK', 'WBR', 'BASEFONT', 'BGSOUND', 'FRAME', 'ISINDEX'];

    $.fn.canContainText = function() {
        var tagName = $(this).prop('tagName').toUpperCase();

        return ($.inArray(tagName, cannotContainText) == -1);
    };
}(jQuery));

$('<br>').canContainText(); //false
$('<div>').canContainText(); //true

Here you can also add your own tags to cannotContainText (eg. to add <tr> which is not officially a void element as it doesn't match the specification "A void element is an element whose content model never allows it to have contents under any circumstances. Void elements can have attributes.").