- if ( a[i].constructor == String ) {
- // trim whitespace, otherwise indexOf won't work as expected
- a[i] = jQuery.trim(a[i]);
+ var arg = a[i];
+ if ( arg.constructor == String ) { // Convert html string into DOM nodes
+ // Trim whitespace, otherwise indexOf won't work as expected
+ var s = jQuery.trim(arg), div = document.createElement("div"), wrap = [0,"",""];
+
+ if ( !s.indexOf("<opt") ) // option or optgroup
+ wrap = [1, "<select>", "</select>"];
+ else if ( !s.indexOf("<thead") || !s.indexOf("<tbody") )
+ wrap = [1, "<table>", "</table>"];
+ else if ( !s.indexOf("<tr") )
+ wrap = [2, "<table>", "</table>"]; // tbody auto-inserted
+ else if ( !s.indexOf("<td") || !s.indexOf("<th") )
+ wrap = [3, "<table><tbody><tr>", "</tr></tbody></table>"];
+
+ // Go to html and back, then peel off extra wrappers
+ div.innerHTML = wrap[1] + s + wrap[2];
+ while ( wrap[0]-- ) div = div.firstChild;