Java 1.5 and XML Node.

[Arjun Karthick]

Hi All,
I use Java 1.5 API. I tried to get the child elements of a xml document by using getChildNodes() method of Node interface. This method reurns a NodeList. The getLength() method of NodeList interface will return the number of child elements in that particular node.

I tried this functionality for same xml node in two different forms. Both the xml documents were part of well formed xml document.

Case 1 :

The Node is Transforms.
The Number of child elements is : 2

<ds:Transforms><ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#enveloped-signature"/><ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/></ds:Transforms>


Case 2 :

The Node is Transforms. But there is space or new line character between each node.
The Number of child elements is : 5

<ds:Transforms> <ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#enveloped-signature"/> <ds:Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/xml-exc-c14n#"/> </ds:Transforms>


Can someone throw light on why the behaviour of the getLength() and item(int index) method of the NodeList interface change for the same Node but in different forms.

Regards,
Arjun.

[William Brogden]

But there is space or new line character between each node.

ANY space or new line introduces a new Text node. Therefore it is bad practice to depend only on the position of a Node in a NodeList obtained by getChildNodes().

You can use getNodeType() to see if you are looking at a TEXT_NODE or ELEMENT_NODE - the JavaDocs for org.w3c.dom.Node are very useful.

Bill