Passing a HTML tag with attributes to jQuery without a closing tag (either /> or </tag>) has different behaviour in IE 8

[oheard]

When creating a new HTML element with attributes by passing the source to the jQuery constructor, if no closing tag is present most browsers create the element anyway.

IE 8 (and maybe below, I don't have < 8) return an empty jQuery object.

Example without attributes, showing the expected behavour: ​http://jsfiddle.net/HJyGz/0/

Example with an attribute, showing the buggy behaviour: ​http://jsfiddle.net/HJyGz/1/

[dmethvin]

Yes, as clearly documented. If it needs a closing tag you should provide one. Just like script tags need a closing tag and can't be shortcutted.

​http://api.jquery.com/jQuery/#jQuery2