Visual FoxPro

Removing / Deleting Child Nodes from XML

See more XML Examples

Demonstrates various methods for removing child nodes from an XML document.

The input XML, available at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/data/fruit.xml, is this:

<root>
    <fruit color="red">apple</fruit>
    <fruit color="green">pear</fruit>
    <veg color="orange">carrot</veg>
    <meat animal="cow">beef</meat>
    <xyz>
        <fruit color="blue">blueberry</fruit>
        <veg color="green">broccoli</veg>
    </xyz>
    <fruit color="purple">grape</fruit>
    <cheese color="yellow">cheddar</cheese>
</root>

Visual FoxPro

LOCAL lnSuccess
LOCAL loXml
LOCAL loXyz

lnSuccess = 0

loXml = CreateObject('Chilkat.Xml')

*  The sample input XML is available at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/data/fruit.xml
lnSuccess = loXml.LoadXmlFile("fruit.xml")
IF (lnSuccess <> 1) THEN
    ? loXml.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loXml
    CANCEL
ENDIF

*  The RemoveChild method removes (discards) all direct
*  children having the specified tag:
loXml.RemoveChild("fruit")

*  Show the resulting XML:
? 'Result with all direct children having a tag equal to "fruit" removed:'
? loXml.GetXml()

*  The XML with the "fruit" direct children removed is shown below:
*  Notice that the "fruit" node beneath "xyz" was not removed.
*  This correct because it was not a direct child of the calling node.

*  <root>
*      <veg color="orange">carrot</veg>
*      <meat animal="cow">beef</meat>
*      <xyz>
*          <fruit color="blue">blueberry</fruit>
*          <veg color="green">broccoli</veg>
*      </xyz>
*      <cheese color="yellow">cheddar</cheese>
*  </root>

*  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
*  Restore the original XML:
lnSuccess = loXml.LoadXmlFile("fruit.xml")

*  The RemoveChildWithContent method removes the child
*  having the exact content specified, regardless of the tag.  
*  For example:
loXml.RemoveChildWithContent("pear")

*  Show the resulting XML:
? 'Result with the node containing "pear" removed:'
? loXml.GetXml()

*  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
*  Restore the original XML:
lnSuccess = loXml.LoadXmlFile("fruit.xml")

*  The RemoveChildByIndex method removes the Nth direct
*  child.  Indexing begins at 0.  The "xyz" child is at index 4:
loXml.RemoveChildByIndex(4)

*  Show the resulting XML:
*  Notice that the entire "xyz" subtree is removed.
? "Result with the node at index 4 removed:"
? loXml.GetXml()

*  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
*  Restore the original XML:
lnSuccess = loXml.LoadXmlFile("fruit.xml")

*  Navigate to the node with tag "xyz";
loXyz = loXml.FindChild("xyz")

*  Remove the "xyz" subtree making it it's own XML document
*  with the "xyz" node at the root:
loXyz.RemoveFromTree()

*  Show both XML documents:
? loXyz.GetXml()
? loXml.GetXml()

*  Also, the TreeId property is an integer value assigned
*  to nodes in an XML document.  All nodes belonging to
*  the same XML document will have the same TreeId.
*  Notice that the "xyz" node now has a different TreeId:
? "xyz TreeId = " + STR(loXyz.TreeId)
? "xml TreeId = " + STR(loXml.TreeId)

RELEASE loXyz

RELEASE loXml