Lianja

Removing / Deleting Child Nodes from XML

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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>

Lianja

llSuccess = .F.

loXml = createobject("CkXml")

// The sample input XML is available at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/data/fruit.xml
llSuccess = loXml.LoadXmlFile("fruit.xml")
if (llSuccess <> .T.) then
    ? loXml.LastErrorText
    release loXml
    return
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:
llSuccess = 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:
llSuccess = 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:
llSuccess = 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