XML DOM Replace Nodes

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XML DOM Replace Nodes
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The replaceChild() method replaces a specified node.

The nodeValue property replaces text in a text node.

- Examples
The examples below use the XML file books.xml.
Replace an element node
This example uses replaceChild() to replace the first <book> node.

Replace data in a text node
This example uses the nodeValue property to replace data in a text node.

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Header
Replace an Element Node
The replaceChild() method is used to replace a node.

The following code fragment replaces the first <book> element:

Example
xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x=xmlDoc.documentElement;

//create a book element, title element and a text node
newNode=xmlDoc.createElement("book");
newTitle=xmlDoc.createElement("title");
newText=xmlDoc.createTextNode("A Notebook");

//add the text node to the title node,
newTitle.appendChild(newText);
//add the title node to the book node
newNode.appendChild(newTitle);

y=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0]
//replace the first book node with the new node
x.replaceChild(newNode,y);
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Example explained:

Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc
Create a new element node <book>
Create a new element node <title>
Create a new text node with the text "A Notebook"
Append the new text node to the new element node <title>
Append the new element node <title> to the new element node <book>
Replace the first <book> element node with the new <book> element node
Replace Data In a Text Node
The replaceData() method is used to replace data in a text node.

The replaceData() method has three parameters:

offset - Where to begin replacing characters. Offset value starts at zero
length - How many characters to replace
string - The string to insert
Example
xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[0].childNodes[0];

x.replaceData(0,8,"Easy");
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Example explained:

Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc
Get the text node of the first <title> element node
Use the replaceData method to replace the eight first characters from the text node with "Easy"
Use the nodeValue Property Instead
It is easier to replace the data in a text node using the nodeValue property.

The following code fragment will replace the text node value in the first <title> element with "Easy Italian":

Example
xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[0].childNodes[0];

x.nodeValue="Easy Italian";
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Example explained:

Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc
Get the text node of the first <title> element node
Use the nodeValue property to change the text of the text node
You can read more about changing node values in the Change Node chapter.


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