JavaScript string literal in object literal syntax error

Question

I am trying to put some html mark-up inside an array for retrieval later. My editor throws a syntax error on the description1 line, I can't figure out why. Any help would be much appreciated. Code below. Thanks A

var modalcontent = {
  description1 : '<div id = "description"><div class = "tbc">  
  <label class = "tbc" for = "tbc">Description</label>
  </div>
  <div class = "tbc">
  <input type = "text" class = "tbc" name = "description" id = "tbc" placeholder =        "Enter description">
  </div>
</div>
<!--end description div-->'
} 

Answer 1

You have an unclosed string literal. JavaScript strings are not multi line by default.

var modalcontent = {
  description1 : '<div id = "description"><div class = "tbc"> '+
  '<label class = "tbc" for = "tbc">Description</label>'+
  '</div>'+
  '<div class = "tbc">'+
  '<input type = "text" class = "tbc" name = "description" id = "tbc" placeholder = "Enter description">'+
  '</div>'+
  '</div>'+
  '<!--end description div-->'
} 

(fiddle)

Alternatively, you can create multi line string by using the \\ character, those only work in newer implementations. See this related question or the language specification .

Note: It's usually not the best idea to store HTML in strings, it makes it harder to debug and work with. You can usually use templates. It's not that there are no good use cases, it's just rarely the case.