Manipulate DOM elements before adding them to the document [duplicate]

Answer 1

This is how I ended up doing it:

var test = $("<div/>");
test.append(html);

test.find(".innertest");

// When I'm ready to append it..

$('#container').append(test);

I had to modify my HTML stream, but this ended up being a clean approach. Thanks for all your suggestions!

Answer 2

var test = $('<div>').addClass('test').append(  

    $('<div>').addClass('innertest').text('Hello!')

), innerDiv = test.find('.innertest').parent().appendTo('body')

This is manipulating before appending to the body element. Is this what you meant? If not can you please specify?