public interface Node
Node
interface is the primary datatype for the entire
Document Object Model. It represents a single node in the document tree.
While all objects implementing the Node
interface expose
methods for dealing with children, not all objects implementing the
Node
interface may have children. For example,
Text
nodes may not have children, and adding children to
such nodes results in a DOMException
being raised.
The attributes nodeName
, nodeValue
and
attributes
are included as a mechanism to get at node
information without casting down to the specific derived interface. In
cases where there is no obvious mapping of these attributes for a
specific nodeType
(e.g., nodeValue
for an
Element
or attributes
for a Comment
), this returns null
. Note that the specialized interfaces
may contain additional and more convenient mechanisms to get and set the
relevant information.
The values of nodeName
,
nodeValue
, and attributes
vary according to the
node type as follows:
Interface | nodeName | nodeValue | attributes |
---|---|---|---|
Attr |
same as Attr.name |
same as
Attr.value |
null |
CDATASection |
"#cdata-section" |
same as CharacterData.data , the
content of the CDATA Section |
null |
Comment |
"#comment" |
same as CharacterData.data , the
content of the comment |
null |
Document |
"#document" |
null |
null |
DocumentFragment |
"#document-fragment" |
null |
null |
DocumentType |
same as
DocumentType.name |
null |
null |
Element |
same as Element.tagName |
null |
NamedNodeMap |
Entity |
entity name | null |
null |
EntityReference |
name of entity referenced |
null |
null |
Notation |
notation name |
null |
null |
ProcessingInstruction |
same
as ProcessingInstruction.target |
same as
ProcessingInstruction.data |
null |
Text |
"#text" |
same as CharacterData.data , the content
of the text node |
null |
See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification.
Modifier and Type | Field and Description |
---|---|
static short |
ATTRIBUTE_NODE
The node is an
Attr . |
static short |
CDATA_SECTION_NODE
The node is a
CDATASection . |
static short |
COMMENT_NODE
The node is a
Comment . |
static short |
DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
The node is a
DocumentFragment . |
static short |
DOCUMENT_NODE
The node is a
Document . |
static short |
DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY
The node is contained by the reference node.
|
static short |
DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS
The node contains the reference node.
|
static short |
DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED
The two nodes are disconnected.
|
static short |
DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING
The node follows the reference node.
|
static short |
DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC
The determination of preceding versus following is
implementation-specific.
|
static short |
DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING
The second node precedes the reference node.
|
static short |
DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
The node is a
DocumentType . |
static short |
ELEMENT_NODE
The node is an
Element . |
static short |
ENTITY_NODE
The node is an
Entity . |
static short |
ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
The node is an
EntityReference . |
static short |
NOTATION_NODE
The node is a
Notation . |
static short |
PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE
The node is a
ProcessingInstruction . |
static short |
TEXT_NODE
The node is a
Text node. |
Modifier and Type | Method and Description |
---|---|
Node |
appendChild(Node newChild)
Adds the node
newChild to the end of the list of children
of this node. |
Node |
cloneNode(boolean deep)
Returns a duplicate of this node, i.e., serves as a generic copy
constructor for nodes.
|
short |
compareDocumentPosition(Node other)
Compares the reference node, i.e.
|
NamedNodeMap |
getAttributes()
A
NamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node (if
it is an Element ) or null otherwise. |
String |
getBaseURI()
The absolute base URI of this node or
null if the
implementation wasn't able to obtain an absolute URI. |
NodeList |
getChildNodes()
A
NodeList that contains all children of this node. |
Object |
getFeature(String feature,
String version)
This method returns a specialized object which implements the
specialized APIs of the specified feature and version, as specified
in .
|
Node |
getFirstChild()
The first child of this node.
|
Node |
getLastChild()
The last child of this node.
|
String |
getLocalName()
Returns the local part of the qualified name of this node.
|
String |
getNamespaceURI()
The namespace URI of this node, or
null if it is
unspecified (see ). |
Node |
getNextSibling()
The node immediately following this node.
|
String |
getNodeName()
The name of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
|
short |
getNodeType()
A code representing the type of the underlying object, as defined above.
|
String |
getNodeValue()
The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
|
Document |
getOwnerDocument()
The
Document object associated with this node. |
Node |
getParentNode()
The parent of this node.
|
String |
getPrefix()
The namespace prefix of this node, or
null if it is
unspecified. |
Node |
getPreviousSibling()
The node immediately preceding this node.
|
String |
getTextContent()
This attribute returns the text content of this node and its
descendants.
|
Object |
getUserData(String key)
Retrieves the object associated to a key on a this node.
|
boolean |
hasAttributes()
Returns whether this node (if it is an element) has any attributes.
|
boolean |
hasChildNodes()
Returns whether this node has any children.
|
Node |
insertBefore(Node newChild,
Node refChild)
Inserts the node
newChild before the existing child node
refChild . |
boolean |
isDefaultNamespace(String namespaceURI)
This method checks if the specified
namespaceURI is the
default namespace or not. |
boolean |
isEqualNode(Node arg)
Tests whether two nodes are equal.
|
boolean |
isSameNode(Node other)
Returns whether this node is the same node as the given one.
|
boolean |
isSupported(String feature,
String version)
Tests whether the DOM implementation implements a specific feature and
that feature is supported by this node, as specified in .
|
String |
lookupNamespaceURI(String prefix)
Look up the namespace URI associated to the given prefix, starting from
this node.
|
String |
lookupPrefix(String namespaceURI)
Look up the prefix associated to the given namespace URI, starting from
this node.
|
void |
normalize()
Puts all
Text nodes in the full depth of the sub-tree
underneath this Node , including attribute nodes, into a
"normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments,
processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity references)
separates Text nodes, i.e., there are neither adjacent
Text nodes nor empty Text nodes. |
Node |
removeChild(Node oldChild)
Removes the child node indicated by
oldChild from the list
of children, and returns it. |
Node |
replaceChild(Node newChild,
Node oldChild)
Replaces the child node
oldChild with newChild
in the list of children, and returns the oldChild node. |
void |
setNodeValue(String nodeValue)
The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
|
void |
setPrefix(String prefix)
The namespace prefix of this node, or
null if it is
unspecified. |
void |
setTextContent(String textContent)
This attribute returns the text content of this node and its
descendants.
|
Object |
setUserData(String key,
Object data,
UserDataHandler handler)
Associate an object to a key on this node.
|
static final short ELEMENT_NODE
Element
.static final short ATTRIBUTE_NODE
Attr
.static final short TEXT_NODE
Text
node.static final short CDATA_SECTION_NODE
CDATASection
.static final short ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE
EntityReference
.static final short ENTITY_NODE
Entity
.static final short PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE
ProcessingInstruction
.static final short COMMENT_NODE
Comment
.static final short DOCUMENT_NODE
Document
.static final short DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE
DocumentType
.static final short DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE
DocumentFragment
.static final short NOTATION_NODE
Notation
.static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED
static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING
static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING
static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS
static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY
static final short DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC
String getNodeName()
String getNodeValue() throws DOMException
null
, setting it has no effect,
including if the node is read-only.DOMException
- DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return more characters than
fit in a DOMString
variable on the implementation
platform.void setNodeValue(String nodeValue) throws DOMException
null
, setting it has no effect,
including if the node is read-only.DOMException
- NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly and if
it is not defined to be null
.short getNodeType()
Node getParentNode()
Attr
,
Document
, DocumentFragment
,
Entity
, and Notation
may have a parent.
However, if a node has just been created and not yet added to the
tree, or if it has been removed from the tree, this is
null
.NodeList getChildNodes()
NodeList
that contains all children of this node. If
there are no children, this is a NodeList
containing no
nodes.Node getFirstChild()
null
.Node getLastChild()
null
.Node getPreviousSibling()
null
.Node getNextSibling()
null
.NamedNodeMap getAttributes()
NamedNodeMap
containing the attributes of this node (if
it is an Element
) or null
otherwise.Document getOwnerDocument()
Document
object associated with this node. This is
also the Document
object used to create new nodes. When
this node is a Document
or a DocumentType
which is not used with any Document
yet, this is
null
.Node insertBefore(Node newChild, Node refChild) throws DOMException
newChild
before the existing child node
refChild
. If refChild
is null
,
insert newChild
at the end of the list of children.
newChild
is a DocumentFragment
object,
all of its children are inserted, in the same order, before
refChild
. If the newChild
is already in the
tree, it is first removed.
Note: Inserting a node before itself is implementation dependent.
newChild
- The node to insert.refChild
- The reference node, i.e., the node before which the
new node must be inserted.DOMException
- HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not
allow children of the type of the newChild
node, or if
the node to insert is one of this node's ancestors or this node
itself, or if this node is of type Document
and the
DOM application attempts to insert a second
DocumentType
or Element
node.
newChild
was created
from a different document than the one that created this node.
refChild
is not a child of
this node.
Document
,
this exception might be raised if the DOM implementation doesn't
support the insertion of a DocumentType
or
Element
node.Node replaceChild(Node newChild, Node oldChild) throws DOMException
oldChild
with newChild
in the list of children, and returns the oldChild
node.
newChild
is a DocumentFragment
object,
oldChild
is replaced by all of the
DocumentFragment
children, which are inserted in the
same order. If the newChild
is already in the tree, it
is first removed.
Note: Replacing a node with itself is implementation dependent.
newChild
- The new node to put in the child list.oldChild
- The node being replaced in the list.DOMException
- HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not
allow children of the type of the newChild
node, or if
the node to put in is one of this node's ancestors or this node
itself, or if this node is of type Document
and the
result of the replacement operation would add a second
DocumentType
or Element
on the
Document
node.
newChild
was created
from a different document than the one that created this node.
oldChild
is not a child of
this node.
Document
,
this exception might be raised if the DOM implementation doesn't
support the replacement of the DocumentType
child or
Element
child.Node removeChild(Node oldChild) throws DOMException
oldChild
from the list
of children, and returns it.oldChild
- The node being removed.DOMException
- NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
oldChild
is not a child of
this node.
Document
,
this exception might be raised if the DOM implementation doesn't
support the removal of the DocumentType
child or the
Element
child.Node appendChild(Node newChild) throws DOMException
newChild
to the end of the list of children
of this node. If the newChild
is already in the tree, it
is first removed.newChild
- The node to add.If it is a
DocumentFragment
object, the entire contents of the
document fragment are moved into the child list of this nodeDOMException
- HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not
allow children of the type of the newChild
node, or if
the node to append is one of this node's ancestors or this node
itself, or if this node is of type Document
and the
DOM application attempts to append a second
DocumentType
or Element
node.
newChild
was created
from a different document than the one that created this node.
newChild
node is a child
of the Document
node, this exception might be raised
if the DOM implementation doesn't support the removal of the
DocumentType
child or Element
child.boolean hasChildNodes()
true
if this node has any children,
false
otherwise.Node cloneNode(boolean deep)
parentNode
is null
) and no user data. User
data associated to the imported node is not carried over. However, if
any UserDataHandlers
has been specified along with the
associated data these handlers will be called with the appropriate
parameters before this method returns.
Element
copies all attributes and their
values, including those generated by the XML processor to represent
defaulted attributes, but this method does not copy any children it
contains unless it is a deep clone. This includes text contained in
an the Element
since the text is contained in a child
Text
node. Cloning an Attr
directly, as
opposed to be cloned as part of an Element
cloning
operation, returns a specified attribute (specified
is
true
). Cloning an Attr
always clones its
children, since they represent its value, no matter whether this is a
deep clone or not. Cloning an EntityReference
automatically constructs its subtree if a corresponding
Entity
is available, no matter whether this is a deep
clone or not. Cloning any other type of node simply returns a copy of
this node.
EntityReference
clone are readonly
. In addition, clones of unspecified Attr
nodes are
specified. And, cloning Document
,
DocumentType
, Entity
, and
Notation
nodes is implementation dependent.deep
- If true
, recursively clone the subtree under
the specified node; if false
, clone only the node
itself (and its attributes, if it is an Element
).void normalize()
Text
nodes in the full depth of the sub-tree
underneath this Node
, including attribute nodes, into a
"normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments,
processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity references)
separates Text
nodes, i.e., there are neither adjacent
Text
nodes nor empty Text
nodes. This can
be used to ensure that the DOM view of a document is the same as if
it were saved and re-loaded, and is useful when operations (such as
XPointer [XPointer]
lookups) that depend on a particular document tree structure are to
be used. If the parameter "normalize-characters" of the
DOMConfiguration
object attached to the
Node.ownerDocument
is true
, this method
will also fully normalize the characters of the Text
nodes.
Note: In cases where the document contains
CDATASections
, the normalize operation alone may not be
sufficient, since XPointers do not differentiate between
Text
nodes and CDATASection
nodes.
boolean isSupported(String feature, String version)
feature
- The name of the feature to test.version
- This is the version number of the feature to test.true
if the specified feature is
supported on this node, false
otherwise.String getNamespaceURI()
null
if it is
unspecified (see ).
ELEMENT_NODE
and
ATTRIBUTE_NODE
and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
method, such as Document.createElement()
, this is always
null
.
Note: Per the Namespaces in XML Specification [XML Namespaces] an attribute does not inherit its namespace from the element it is attached to. If an attribute is not explicitly given a namespace, it simply has no namespace.
String getPrefix()
null
if it is
unspecified. When it is defined to be null
, setting it
has no effect, including if the node is read-only.
nodeName
attribute, which holds the qualified name, as
well as the tagName
and name
attributes of
the Element
and Attr
interfaces, when
applicable.
null
makes it unspecified,
setting it to an empty string is implementation dependent.
namespaceURI
and localName
do not change.
ELEMENT_NODE
and
ATTRIBUTE_NODE
and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
method, such as createElement
from the
Document
interface, this is always null
.void setPrefix(String prefix) throws DOMException
null
if it is
unspecified. When it is defined to be null
, setting it
has no effect, including if the node is read-only.
nodeName
attribute, which holds the qualified name, as
well as the tagName
and name
attributes of
the Element
and Attr
interfaces, when
applicable.
null
makes it unspecified,
setting it to an empty string is implementation dependent.
namespaceURI
and localName
do not change.
ELEMENT_NODE
and
ATTRIBUTE_NODE
and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
method, such as createElement
from the
Document
interface, this is always null
.DOMException
- INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified prefix contains an
illegal character according to the XML version in use specified in
the Document.xmlVersion
attribute.
prefix
is
malformed per the Namespaces in XML specification, if the
namespaceURI
of this node is null
, if the
specified prefix is "xml" and the namespaceURI
of this
node is different from "
http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace", if this node is an attribute and the specified prefix is "xmlns" and
the namespaceURI
of this node is different from "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/", or if this node is an attribute and the qualifiedName
of
this node is "xmlns" [XML Namespaces]
.String getLocalName()
ELEMENT_NODE
and
ATTRIBUTE_NODE
and nodes created with a DOM Level 1
method, such as Document.createElement()
, this is always
null
.boolean hasAttributes()
true
if this node has any attributes,
false
otherwise.String getBaseURI()
null
if the
implementation wasn't able to obtain an absolute URI. This value is
computed as described in . However, when the Document
supports the feature "HTML" [DOM Level 2 HTML]
, the base URI is computed using first the value of the href
attribute of the HTML BASE element if any, and the value of the
documentURI
attribute from the Document
interface otherwise.short compareDocumentPosition(Node other) throws DOMException
other
- The node to compare against the reference node.DOMException
- NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: when the compared nodes are from different DOM
implementations that do not coordinate to return consistent
implementation-specific results.String getTextContent() throws DOMException
null
, setting it
has no effect. On setting, any possible children this node may have
are removed and, if it the new string is not empty or
null
, replaced by a single Text
node
containing the string this attribute is set to.
Text.isElementContentWhitespace
). Similarly, on setting,
no parsing is performed either, the input string is taken as pure
textual content.
Node type | Content |
---|---|
ELEMENT_NODE, ATTRIBUTE_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE | concatenation of the textContent
attribute value of every child node, excluding COMMENT_NODE and
PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE nodes. This is the empty string if the
node has no children. |
TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE | nodeValue |
DOCUMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE | null |
DOMException
- DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return more characters than
fit in a DOMString
variable on the implementation
platform.void setTextContent(String textContent) throws DOMException
null
, setting it
has no effect. On setting, any possible children this node may have
are removed and, if it the new string is not empty or
null
, replaced by a single Text
node
containing the string this attribute is set to.
Text.isElementContentWhitespace
). Similarly, on setting,
no parsing is performed either, the input string is taken as pure
textual content.
Node type | Content |
---|---|
ELEMENT_NODE, ATTRIBUTE_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE | concatenation of the textContent
attribute value of every child node, excluding COMMENT_NODE and
PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE nodes. This is the empty string if the
node has no children. |
TEXT_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE | nodeValue |
DOCUMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE | null |
DOMException
- NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly.boolean isSameNode(Node other)
Node
references returned by the implementation reference
the same object. When two Node
references are references
to the same object, even if through a proxy, the references may be
used completely interchangeably, such that all attributes have the
same values and calling the same DOM method on either reference
always has exactly the same effect.other
- The node to test against.true
if the nodes are the same,
false
otherwise.String lookupPrefix(String namespaceURI)
namespaceURI
- The namespace URI to look for.null
if none is found. If more than one prefix are
associated to the namespace prefix, the returned namespace prefix
is implementation dependent.boolean isDefaultNamespace(String namespaceURI)
namespaceURI
is the
default namespace or not.namespaceURI
- The namespace URI to look for.true
if the specified
namespaceURI
is the default namespace,
false
otherwise.String lookupNamespaceURI(String prefix)
prefix
- The prefix to look for. If this parameter is
null
, the method will return the default namespace URI
if any.null
if
none is found.boolean isEqualNode(Node arg)
Node.isSameNode()
. All nodes that are the
same will also be equal, though the reverse may not be true.
nodeName
, localName
,
namespaceURI
, prefix
, nodeValue
. This is: they are both null
, or they have the same
length and are character for character identical.
attributes
NamedNodeMaps
are equal. This
is: they are both null
, or they have the same length and
for each node that exists in one map there is a node that exists in
the other map and is equal, although not necessarily at the same
index.
childNodes
NodeLists
are equal.
This is: they are both null
, or they have the same
length and contain equal nodes at the same index. Note that
normalization can affect equality; to avoid this, nodes should be
normalized before being compared.
DocumentType
nodes to be equal, the following
conditions must also be satisfied:
publicId
, systemId
,
internalSubset
.
entities
NamedNodeMaps
are equal.
notations
NamedNodeMaps
are equal.
ownerDocument
, baseURI
, and
parentNode
attributes, the specified
attribute for Attr
nodes, the schemaTypeInfo
attribute for Attr
and Element
nodes, the
Text.isElementContentWhitespace
attribute for
Text
nodes, as well as any user data or event listeners
registered on the nodes.
Note: As a general rule, anything not mentioned in the description above is not significant in consideration of equality checking. Note that future versions of this specification may take into account more attributes and implementations conform to this specification are expected to be updated accordingly.
arg
- The node to compare equality with.true
if the nodes are equal,
false
otherwise.Object getFeature(String feature, String version)
Node
interface.feature
- The name of the feature requested. Note that any plus
sign "+" prepended to the name of the feature will be ignored since
it is not significant in the context of this method.version
- This is the version number of the feature to test.null
if
there is no object which implements interfaces associated with that
feature. If the DOMObject
returned by this method
implements the Node
interface, it must delegate to the
primary core Node
and not return results inconsistent
with the primary core Node
such as attributes,
childNodes, etc.Object setUserData(String key, Object data, UserDataHandler handler)
getUserData
with the
same key.key
- The key to associate the object to.data
- The object to associate to the given key, or
null
to remove any existing association to that key.handler
- The handler to associate to that key, or
null
.DOMUserData
previously associated to
the given key on this node, or null
if there was none.Object getUserData(String key)
setUserData
with the same key.key
- The key the object is associated to.DOMUserData
associated to the given
key on this node, or null
if there was none. Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.
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