For the purpose of this question lets say we need to append() 1000 objects to the body element.
You could go about it like this:
You could just call
$('body').append(elements.join(''));
Or you can just create a large string in the first place.
var elements = '';
for(x = 0; x < 1000; x++) {
elements = elements + ''+x+'';
}
$(document.body).append(elements);
Like you mentioned, probably the most "correct" way is the usage of a DocFrag. This could look like
var elements = document.createDocumentFragment(),
newDiv;
for(x = 0; x < 1000; x++) {
newDiv = document.createElement('div');
newDiv.textContent = x;
elements.append( newDiv );
}
$(document.body).append(elements);
.textContent is not supported by IE<9 and would need an conditional check to use .innerText or .text instead.