php - responseText not returning HTML markup -

i have web page am using innerhtml , responsetext replace contents of table upon user interaction. replacing contents of

<div> {response html goes here} </div>

the response html table exists inside of self.

so preferred response be:

`<div id="replacecontents"><div id="tablecontaner></div></div>` 

however when make call , have php echo div containing table receive text values, response missing of html markup.

is there i'm missing here?

if js looks this:

document.getelementbyid('container').innerhtml = ajaxrequest.responsetext 

then html should this:

<div id="container"><!-- place loading gif here example -->replace me</div> 

you want replace contents within container has id of "container".