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public interface Node
The 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.
| Field Summary | |
|---|---|
| static short | ATTRIBUTE_NODEThe node is an Attr. | 
| static short | CDATA_SECTION_NODEThe node is a CDATASection. | 
| static short | COMMENT_NODEThe node is a Comment. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODEThe node is a DocumentFragment. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_NODEThe node is a Document. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BYThe node is contained by the reference node. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINSThe node contains the reference node. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTEDThe two nodes are disconnected. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWINGThe node follows the reference node. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFICThe determination of preceding versus following is implementation-specific. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDINGThe second node precedes the reference node. | 
| static short | DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODEThe node is a DocumentType. | 
| static short | ELEMENT_NODEThe node is an Element. | 
| static short | ENTITY_NODEThe node is an Entity. | 
| static short | ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODEThe node is an EntityReference. | 
| static short | NOTATION_NODEThe node is a Notation. | 
| static short | PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODEThe node is a ProcessingInstruction. | 
| static short | TEXT_NODEThe node is a Textnode. | 
| Method Summary | |
|---|---|
|  Node | appendChild(Node newChild)Adds the node newChildto 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 NamedNodeMapcontaining the attributes of this node (if 
 it is anElement) ornullotherwise. | 
|  String | getBaseURI()The absolute base URI of this node or nullif the 
 implementation wasn't able to obtain an absolute URI. | 
|  NodeList | getChildNodes()A NodeListthat 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 nullif 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 Documentobject associated with this node. | 
|  Node | getParentNode()The parent of this node. | 
|  String | getPrefix()The namespace prefix of this node, or nullif 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 newChildbefore the existing child noderefChild. | 
|  boolean | isDefaultNamespace(String namespaceURI)This method checks if the specified namespaceURIis 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 Textnodes in the full depth of the sub-tree 
 underneath thisNode, including attribute nodes, into a 
 "normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments, 
 processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity references) 
 separatesTextnodes, i.e., there are neither adjacentTextnodes nor emptyTextnodes. | 
|  Node | removeChild(Node oldChild)Removes the child node indicated by oldChildfrom the list 
 of children, and returns it. | 
|  Node | replaceChild(Node newChild,
             Node oldChild)Replaces the child node oldChildwithnewChildin the list of children, and returns theoldChildnode. | 
|  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 nullif 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. | 
| Field Detail | 
|---|
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
| Method Detail | 
|---|
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 node
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 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 textContentattribute 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 textContentattribute 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.| 
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