[jQuery] Getting .html() AND the container element

[jQuery] Getting .html() AND the container element


Hi all,
Working on a jQuery-powered Ajax application here. I need to get the
HTML content of an element -- but including the element itself.
Meaning, if I have
<div class="example" width="300">Lorem ipsum</div>
I want to return that entire string rather than just the contents
inside.
In theory I could .wrap() this with a wrapper div, then get
the .html() of the wrapper, then remove the wrapper -- but it seems
like there has to be an easier or more efficient way just to grab that
string. Is there?
Thanks,
Donald