retrieve a cell value <td>

Hi guys can help me are very little versed in javascript ... I explain my problem!
I have a table where they passed the results of a query ...
The table field is called Article and consists of about 500 characters, but the substring in the table with a step the first 40 characters, and now the question arises ... I would click on the text of the article and see the page the entire article ...

query="SELECT * FROM Articolo ORDER BY titolo DESC";
ResultSet r = stmt.executeQuery(query);
%>
<table border="1">
<tr><td> titolo </td> <td> articolo </td> <td> data inser </td></tr>
<%
while(r.next())
{
Tot = r.getString("titolo");
Art = r.getString("articolo");
dat = r.getString("data_inserimento");
String meta = "";
String metadata = "";
meta = Art.substring(0,40);
metadata = dat.substring(0, 10);
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(meta);
sb.replace(37,40, "...");
String s2 = sb.toString();

%>
<tr>
<td> <%= Tot %> </td>
<td> <a href="#" onClick="this.innerText = '<%= Art %>';"><%= s2 %></a> </td>
<td> <%= metadata %> </td>
</tr>


<%
}
%>
</table>

Code (markup):

 

you need to have a key that you will use in your anchor, then when clicked query using the key

 

do you can this code?

 

You can go through the elements using the DOM or using Jquery elements