Rexml: replace several text nodes by a single one

ruby-talk
1

Hi,

this sounds simple but I just don't get it...

I want to replace the text child nodes of an REXML::Element by a new, single text node...

In order to do that, I want to remove any previous text nodes first

···

---------------------------------
require 'rexml/document'
include REXML

doc = Document.new("<a> <b/> </a>")
a = doc.elements['a']
a.delete_element('b')

# assert: a.texts.size == 2

# try #1
#
# a.texts.clear
# --> can't modify frozen array (TypeError)

# try #2
#
# iterate all elements, call delete_element: fails, because a.elements.size == 0

# MAGIC CODE GOES HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a.text = "I am the only text in this element"

# assert a.texts.size == 1

---------------------------------

I don't think that setting all text nodes to zero-length string values is a _good_ solution.

thanks for your help!

regards
peter

2

Pete wrote:

Hi,

this sounds simple but I just don't get it...

I want to replace the text child nodes of an REXML::Element by a new,
single text node...

In order to do that, I want to remove any previous text nodes first

OMG, I was just about to ask the same thing. I was trying to delete
them all first, but I don;t even get how to do that:

  node.parent.delete( node ) # soden;t seem to to work

Do I really have to do

  case node
  when REXML::Element
    node.parent.delete_element( node )
  when REXML::Attribute
    node.parent.delete_element( node )
  when REXML::Text
    node.parent.delete_text( node )
  else
     # else ?
  end

Tell me it ain't so!

T.

3

I got something to work at least. This should give you an idea of how I
did it:

    def remove!
      case @node.node_type
      when :text
        @node.value = ''
      else
        @node.parent.send("delete_#{@node.node_type}", @node )
      end
    end

    def empty!
      each { |n| n.remove! }
    end

T.