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XML DOM - The Node Object


The Node Object

The Node object represents a single node in the document tree.

A node can be an element node, an attribute node, a text node, or any other of the node types explained in the Node Types chapter.

Notice that while all objects inherits the Node properties / methods for dealing with parents and children, not all objects can have parents or children. For example, Text nodes may not have children, and adding children to such nodes results in a DOM error.

Node Object Properties

Property Description
attributes A NamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node (if it is an Element)
baseURI Returns the absolute base URI of a node
childNodes Returns a NodeList of child nodes for a node
firstChild Returns the first child of a node
lastChild Returns the last child of a node
nextSibling Returns the node immediately following a node
nodeName Returns the name of a node, depending on its type
nodeType Returns the type of a node
nodeValue Sets or returns the value of a node, depending on its type
ownerDocument Returns the root element (document object) for a node
parentNode Returns the parent node of a node
prefix Sets or returns the namespace prefix of a node
previousSibling Returns the node immediately before a node
textContent Sets or returns the textual content of a node and its descendants

Node Object Methods

Method Description
appendChild() Appends a new child node to the end of the list of children of a node
cloneNode() Clones a node
compareDocumentPosition() Compares the placement of two nodes in the DOM hierarchy (document)
getFeature(feature,version) Returns a DOM object which implements the specialized APIs of the specified feature and version
getUserData(key) Returns the object associated to a key on a this node. The object must first have been set to this node by calling setUserData with the same key
hasAttributes() Returns true if the specified node has any attributes, otherwise false
hasChildNodes() Returns true if the specified node has any child nodes, otherwise false
insertBefore() Inserts a new child node before an existing child node
isDefaultNamespace(URI) Returns whether the specified namespaceURI is the default
isEqualNode() Tests whether two nodes are equal
isSameNode() Tests whether the two nodes are the same node
lookupNamespaceURI() Returns the namespace URI associated with a given prefix
lookupPrefix() Returns the prefix associated with a given namespace URI
normalize() Puts all Text nodes underneath a 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
removeChild() Removes a specified child node from the current node
replaceChild() Replaces a child node with a new node
setUserData(key,data,handler) Associates an object to a key on a node