Cross-browser solution for changing the 'type' attribute of an `<input/>` tag.

changeTypeAttr.js

/* x is the <input/> element
   type is the type you want to change it to.
   jQuery is required and assumed to be the "$" variable */
function changeType(x, type) {
    if(x.prop('type') == type)
        return x; //That was easy.
    try {
        return x.prop('type', type); //Stupid IE security will not allow this
    } catch(e) {
        //Try re-creating the element (yep... this sucks)
        //jQuery has no html() method for the element, so we have to put into a div first
        var html = $("<div>").append(x.clone()).html();
        var regex = /type=(\")?([^\"\s]+)(\")?/; //matches type=text or type="text"
        //If no match, we add the type attribute to the end; otherwise, we replace
        var tmp = $(html.match(regex) == null ?
            html.replace(">", ' type="' + type + '">') :
            html.replace(regex, 'type="' + type + '"') );
        //Copy data from old element
        tmp.data('type', x.data('type') );
        var events = x.data('events');
        var cb = function(events) {
            return function() {
                //Bind all prior events
                for(i in events)
                {
                    var y = events[i];
                    for(j in y)
                        tmp.bind(i, y[j].handler);
                }
            }
        }(events);
        x.replaceWith(tmp);
        setTimeout(cb, 10); //Wait a bit to call function
        return tmp;
    }
}

Thanks for making this. You should put a "var" in front of the loop variable "i" and "j" btw. They are global in this snippet without it.

Agree! Jshint gives some errors without the var in front of the loop variable.