title: Hidden html table for data storage
body: <p>I have built a one page web application that manipulates a set of data:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>2,000 to 3,000 items</li>
  <li>each item has the same properties: State, City, Street, Zip code</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I am currently retrieving the data via AJAX and storing them in an array of objects (each array element is an object with key/value for State, City, Street, Zip code).</p>
  
  <p>I am considering modifying my code, to store my items in a hidden html table instead:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>one row per item</li>
  <li>one column per property (State, City, Street, Zip code)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>The main benefit I see: when they work offsite, the users can save my page to work offline, as the hidden table is part of the DOM.</p>
  
  <p>A table is also a convenient format, all browsers understand it (I need to support IE 7), and each cell is easy to access by its coordinates (rows[i].cells[j]).</p>
  
  <p>I am a little bit concerned with performance for DOM traversing, but I am thinking that I could have the table detached from the DOM, and only attach it when users save the page.</p>
  
  <p>Am I missing something? Is there any reason in my case why using a hidden table for data storage wouldn't be a good idea?</p>