Top Description Fields Methods
org.w3c.dom

public Interface Element

extends Node
Known Direct Implementers
com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.utils.UnImplNode, com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.dom.ElementImpl, com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.opti.DefaultElement, com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.dtm.ref.DTMNodeProxy
The Element interface represents an element in an HTML or XML document. Elements may have attributes associated with them; since the Element interface inherits from Node, the generic Node interface attribute attributes may be used to retrieve the set of all attributes for an element. There are methods on the Element interface to retrieve either an Attr object by name or an attribute value by name. In XML, where an attribute value may contain entity references, an Attr object should be retrieved to examine the possibly fairly complex sub-tree representing the attribute value. On the other hand, in HTML, where all attributes have simple string values, methods to directly access an attribute value can safely be used as a convenience.

Note

In DOM Level 2, the method normalize is inherited from the Node interface where it was moved.

See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification.

Since
1.4, DOM Level 2

Field Summary

Inherited from org.w3c.dom.Node:
ATTRIBUTE_NODECDATA_SECTION_NODECOMMENT_NODEDOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODEDOCUMENT_NODEDOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BYDOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINSDOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTEDDOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWINGDOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFICDOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDINGDOCUMENT_TYPE_NODEELEMENT_NODEENTITY_NODEENTITY_REFERENCE_NODENOTATION_NODEPROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODETEXT_NODE

Method Summary

Modifier and TypeMethod and Description
public String

Returns:

The Attr value as a string, or the empty string if that attribute does not have a specified or default value.
getAttribute(String
The name of the attribute to retrieve.
name)

Retrieves an attribute value by name.

public Attr

Returns:

The Attr node with the specified name ( nodeName) or null if there is no such attribute.
getAttributeNode(String
The name (nodeName) of the attribute to retrieve.
name)

Retrieves an attribute node by name.

public Attr

Returns:

The Attr node with the specified attribute local name and namespace URI or null if there is no such attribute.
getAttributeNodeNS(String
The namespace URI of the attribute to retrieve.
namespaceURI, String
The local name of the attribute to retrieve.
localName)

Retrieves an Attr node by local name and namespace URI.

public String

Returns:

The Attr value as a string, or the empty string if that attribute does not have a specified or default value.
getAttributeNS(String
The namespace URI of the attribute to retrieve.
namespaceURI, String
The local name of the attribute to retrieve.
localName)

Retrieves an attribute value by local name and namespace URI.

public NodeList

Returns:

A list of matching Element nodes.
getElementsByTagName(String
The name of the tag to match on. The special value "*" matches all tags.
name)

Returns a NodeList of all descendant Elements with a given tag name, in document order.

public NodeList

Returns:

A new NodeList object containing all the matched Elements.
getElementsByTagNameNS(String
The namespace URI of the elements to match on. The special value "*" matches all namespaces.
namespaceURI, String
The local name of the elements to match on. The special value "*" matches all local names.
localName)

Returns a NodeList of all the descendant Elements with a given local name and namespace URI in document order.

public TypeInfo
getSchemaTypeInfo()

The type information associated with this element.

public String
getTagName()

The name of the element.

public boolean

Returns:

true if an attribute with the given name is specified on this element or has a default value, false otherwise.
hasAttribute(String
The name of the attribute to look for.
name)

Returns true when an attribute with a given name is specified on this element or has a default value, false otherwise.

public boolean

Returns:

true if an attribute with the given local name and namespace URI is specified or has a default value on this element, false otherwise.
hasAttributeNS(String
The namespace URI of the attribute to look for.
namespaceURI, String
The local name of the attribute to look for.
localName)

Returns true when an attribute with a given local name and namespace URI is specified on this element or has a default value, false otherwise.

public void
removeAttribute(String
The name of the attribute to remove.
name)

Removes an attribute by name.

public Attr

Returns:

The Attr node that was removed.
removeAttributeNode(Attr
The Attr node to remove from the attribute list.
oldAttr)

Removes the specified attribute node.

public void
removeAttributeNS(String
The namespace URI of the attribute to remove.
namespaceURI, String
The local name of the attribute to remove.
localName)

Removes an attribute by local name and namespace URI.

public void
setAttribute(String
The name of the attribute to create or alter.
name, String
Value to set in string form.
value)

Adds a new attribute.

public Attr

Returns:

If the newAttr attribute replaces an existing attribute, the replaced Attr node is returned, otherwise null is returned.
setAttributeNode(Attr
The Attr node to add to the attribute list.
newAttr)

Adds a new attribute node.

public Attr

Returns:

If the newAttr attribute replaces an existing attribute with the same local name and namespace URI, the replaced Attr node is returned, otherwise null is returned.
setAttributeNodeNS(Attr
The Attr node to add to the attribute list.
newAttr)

Adds a new attribute.

public void
setAttributeNS(String
The namespace URI of the attribute to create or alter.
namespaceURI, String
The qualified name of the attribute to create or alter.
qualifiedName, String
The value to set in string form.
value)

Adds a new attribute.

public void
setIdAttribute(String
The name of the attribute.
name, boolean
Whether the attribute is a of type ID.
isId)

If the parameter isId is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute .

public void
setIdAttributeNode(Attr
The attribute node.
idAttr, boolean
Whether the attribute is a of type ID.
isId)

If the parameter isId is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute .

public void
setIdAttributeNS(String
The namespace URI of the attribute.
namespaceURI, String
The local name of the attribute.
localName, boolean
Whether the attribute is a of type ID.
isId)

If the parameter isId is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute .

Inherited from org.w3c.dom.Node:
appendChildcloneNodecompareDocumentPositiongetAttributesgetBaseURIgetChildNodesgetFeaturegetFirstChildgetLastChildgetLocalNamegetNamespaceURIgetNextSiblinggetNodeNamegetNodeTypegetNodeValuegetOwnerDocumentgetParentNodegetPrefixgetPreviousSiblinggetTextContentgetUserDatahasAttributeshasChildNodesinsertBeforeisDefaultNamespaceisEqualNodeisSameNodeisSupportedlookupNamespaceURIlookupPrefixnormalizeremoveChildreplaceChildsetNodeValuesetPrefixsetTextContentsetUserData

Method Detail

getAttributeback to summary
public String getAttribute(String name)

Retrieves an attribute value by name.

Parameters
name:String

The name of the attribute to retrieve.

Returns:String

The Attr value as a string, or the empty string if that attribute does not have a specified or default value.

getAttributeNodeback to summary
public Attr getAttributeNode(String name)

Retrieves an attribute node by name.
To retrieve an attribute node by qualified name and namespace URI, use the getAttributeNodeNS method.

Parameters
name:String

The name (nodeName) of the attribute to retrieve.

Returns:Attr

The Attr node with the specified name ( nodeName) or null if there is no such attribute.

getAttributeNodeNSback to summary
public Attr getAttributeNodeNS(String namespaceURI, String localName) throws DOMException

Retrieves an Attr node by local name and namespace URI.
Per [XML Namespaces] , applications must use the value null as the namespaceURI parameter for methods if they wish to have no namespace.

Parameters
namespaceURI:String

The namespace URI of the attribute to retrieve.

localName:String

The local name of the attribute to retrieve.

Returns:Attr

The Attr node with the specified attribute local name and namespace URI or null if there is no such attribute.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: May be raised if the implementation does not support the feature "XML" and the language exposed through the Document does not support XML Namespaces (such as [HTML 4.01]).
Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
getAttributeNSback to summary
public String getAttributeNS(String namespaceURI, String localName) throws DOMException

Retrieves an attribute value by local name and namespace URI.
Per [XML Namespaces] , applications must use the value null as the namespaceURI parameter for methods if they wish to have no namespace.

Parameters
namespaceURI:String

The namespace URI of the attribute to retrieve.

localName:String

The local name of the attribute to retrieve.

Returns:String

The Attr value as a string, or the empty string if that attribute does not have a specified or default value.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: May be raised if the implementation does not support the feature "XML" and the language exposed through the Document does not support XML Namespaces (such as [HTML 4.01]).
Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
getElementsByTagNameback to summary
public NodeList getElementsByTagName(String name)

Returns a NodeList of all descendant Elements with a given tag name, in document order.

Parameters
name:String

The name of the tag to match on. The special value "*" matches all tags.

Returns:NodeList

A list of matching Element nodes.

getElementsByTagNameNSback to summary
public NodeList getElementsByTagNameNS(String namespaceURI, String localName) throws DOMException

Returns a NodeList of all the descendant Elements with a given local name and namespace URI in document order.

Parameters
namespaceURI:String

The namespace URI of the elements to match on. The special value "*" matches all namespaces.

localName:String

The local name of the elements to match on. The special value "*" matches all local names.

Returns:NodeList

A new NodeList object containing all the matched Elements.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: May be raised if the implementation does not support the feature "XML" and the language exposed through the Document does not support XML Namespaces (such as [HTML 4.01]).
Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
getSchemaTypeInfoback to summary
public TypeInfo getSchemaTypeInfo()

The type information associated with this element.

Since
1.5, DOM Level 3
getTagNameback to summary
public String getTagName()

The name of the element. If Node.localName is different from null, this attribute is a qualified name. For example, in: 

 <elementExample id="demo"> ...
</elementExample> ,
tagName has the value "elementExample". Note that this is case-preserving in XML, as are all of the operations of the DOM. The HTML DOM returns the tagName of an HTML element in the canonical uppercase form, regardless of the case in the source HTML document.
hasAttributeback to summary
public boolean hasAttribute(String name)

Returns true when an attribute with a given name is specified on this element or has a default value, false otherwise.

Parameters
name:String

The name of the attribute to look for.

Returns:boolean

true if an attribute with the given name is specified on this element or has a default value, false otherwise.

Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
hasAttributeNSback to summary
public boolean hasAttributeNS(String namespaceURI, String localName) throws DOMException

Returns true when an attribute with a given local name and namespace URI is specified on this element or has a default value, false otherwise.
Per [XML Namespaces] , applications must use the value null as the namespaceURI parameter for methods if they wish to have no namespace.

Parameters
namespaceURI:String

The namespace URI of the attribute to look for.

localName:String

The local name of the attribute to look for.

Returns:boolean

true if an attribute with the given local name and namespace URI is specified or has a default value on this element, false otherwise.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: May be raised if the implementation does not support the feature "XML" and the language exposed through the Document does not support XML Namespaces (such as [HTML 4.01]).
Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
removeAttributeback to summary
public void removeAttribute(String name) throws DOMException

Removes an attribute by name. If a default value for the removed attribute is defined in the DTD, a new attribute immediately appears with the default value as well as the corresponding namespace URI, local name, and prefix when applicable. The implementation may handle default values from other schemas similarly but applications should use Document.normalizeDocument() to guarantee this information is up-to-date.
If no attribute with this name is found, this method has no effect.
To remove an attribute by local name and namespace URI, use the removeAttributeNS method.

Parameters
name:String

The name of the attribute to remove.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
removeAttributeNodeback to summary
public Attr removeAttributeNode(Attr oldAttr) throws DOMException

Removes the specified attribute node. If a default value for the removed Attr node is defined in the DTD, a new node immediately appears with the default value as well as the corresponding namespace URI, local name, and prefix when applicable. The implementation may handle default values from other schemas similarly but applications should use Document.normalizeDocument() to guarantee this information is up-to-date.

Parameters
oldAttr:Attr

The Attr node to remove from the attribute list.

Returns:Attr

The Attr node that was removed.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if oldAttr is not an attribute of the element.
removeAttributeNSback to summary
public void removeAttributeNS(String namespaceURI, String localName) throws DOMException

Removes an attribute by local name and namespace URI. If a default value for the removed attribute is defined in the DTD, a new attribute immediately appears with the default value as well as the corresponding namespace URI, local name, and prefix when applicable. The implementation may handle default values from other schemas similarly but applications should use Document.normalizeDocument() to guarantee this information is up-to-date.
If no attribute with this local name and namespace URI is found, this method has no effect.
Per [XML Namespaces] , applications must use the value null as the namespaceURI parameter for methods if they wish to have no namespace.

Parameters
namespaceURI:String

The namespace URI of the attribute to remove.

localName:String

The local name of the attribute to remove.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: May be raised if the implementation does not support the feature "XML" and the language exposed through the Document does not support XML Namespaces (such as [HTML 4.01]).
Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
setAttributeback to summary
public void setAttribute(String name, String value) throws DOMException

Adds a new attribute. If an attribute with that name is already present in the element, its value is changed to be that of the value parameter. This value is a simple string; it is not parsed as it is being set. So any markup (such as syntax to be recognized as an entity reference) is treated as literal text, and needs to be appropriately escaped by the implementation when it is written out. In order to assign an attribute value that contains entity references, the user must create an Attr node plus any Text and EntityReference nodes, build the appropriate subtree, and use setAttributeNode to assign it as the value of an attribute.
To set an attribute with a qualified name and namespace URI, use the setAttributeNS method.

Parameters
name:String

The name of the attribute to create or alter.

value:String

Value to set in string form.

Exceptions
DOMException:
INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified name is not an XML name according to the XML version in use specified in the Document.xmlVersion attribute.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
setAttributeNodeback to summary
public Attr setAttributeNode(Attr newAttr) throws DOMException

Adds a new attribute node. If an attribute with that name ( nodeName) is already present in the element, it is replaced by the new one. Replacing an attribute node by itself has no effect.
To add a new attribute node with a qualified name and namespace URI, use the setAttributeNodeNS method.

Parameters
newAttr:Attr

The Attr node to add to the attribute list.

Returns:Attr

If the newAttr attribute replaces an existing attribute, the replaced Attr node is returned, otherwise null is returned.

Exceptions
DOMException:
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newAttr was created from a different document than the one that created the element.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR: Raised if newAttr is already an attribute of another Element object. The DOM user must explicitly clone Attr nodes to re-use them in other elements.
setAttributeNodeNSback to summary
public Attr setAttributeNodeNS(Attr newAttr) throws DOMException

Adds a new attribute. If an attribute with that local name and that namespace URI is already present in the element, it is replaced by the new one. Replacing an attribute node by itself has no effect.
Per [XML Namespaces] , applications must use the value null as the namespaceURI parameter for methods if they wish to have no namespace.

Parameters
newAttr:Attr

The Attr node to add to the attribute list.

Returns:Attr

If the newAttr attribute replaces an existing attribute with the same local name and namespace URI, the replaced Attr node is returned, otherwise null is returned.

Exceptions
DOMException:
WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newAttr was created from a different document than the one that created the element.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR: Raised if newAttr is already an attribute of another Element object. The DOM user must explicitly clone Attr nodes to re-use them in other elements.
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: May be raised if the implementation does not support the feature "XML" and the language exposed through the Document does not support XML Namespaces (such as [HTML 4.01]).
Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
setAttributeNSback to summary
public void setAttributeNS(String namespaceURI, String qualifiedName, String value) throws DOMException

Adds a new attribute. If an attribute with the same local name and namespace URI is already present on the element, its prefix is changed to be the prefix part of the qualifiedName, and its value is changed to be the value parameter. This value is a simple string; it is not parsed as it is being set. So any markup (such as syntax to be recognized as an entity reference) is treated as literal text, and needs to be appropriately escaped by the implementation when it is written out. In order to assign an attribute value that contains entity references, the user must create an Attr node plus any Text and EntityReference nodes, build the appropriate subtree, and use setAttributeNodeNS or setAttributeNode to assign it as the value of an attribute.
Per [XML Namespaces] , applications must use the value null as the namespaceURI parameter for methods if they wish to have no namespace.

Parameters
namespaceURI:String

The namespace URI of the attribute to create or alter.

qualifiedName:String

The qualified name of the attribute to create or alter.

value:String

The value to set in string form.

Exceptions
DOMException:
INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR: Raised if the specified qualified name is not an XML name according to the XML version in use specified in the Document.xmlVersion attribute.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
NAMESPACE_ERR: Raised if the qualifiedName is malformed per the Namespaces in XML specification, if the qualifiedName has a prefix and the namespaceURI is null, if the qualifiedName has a prefix that is "xml" and the namespaceURI is different from " http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace", if the qualifiedName or its prefix is "xmlns" and the namespaceURI is different from "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/", or if the namespaceURI is "http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/" and neither the qualifiedName nor its prefix is "xmlns".
NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: May be raised if the implementation does not support the feature "XML" and the language exposed through the Document does not support XML Namespaces (such as [HTML 4.01]).
Since
1.4, DOM Level 2
setIdAttributeback to summary
public void setIdAttribute(String name, boolean isId) throws DOMException

If the parameter isId is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute . This affects the value of Attr.isId and the behavior of Document.getElementById, but does not change any schema that may be in use, in particular this does not affect the Attr.schemaTypeInfo of the specified Attr node. Use the value false for the parameter isId to undeclare an attribute for being a user-determined ID attribute.
To specify an attribute by local name and namespace URI, use the setIdAttributeNS method.

Parameters
name:String

The name of the attribute.

isId:boolean

Whether the attribute is a of type ID.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if the specified node is not an attribute of this element.
Since
1.5, DOM Level 3
setIdAttributeNodeback to summary
public void setIdAttributeNode(Attr idAttr, boolean isId) throws DOMException

If the parameter isId is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute . This affects the value of Attr.isId and the behavior of Document.getElementById, but does not change any schema that may be in use, in particular this does not affect the Attr.schemaTypeInfo of the specified Attr node. Use the value false for the parameter isId to undeclare an attribute for being a user-determined ID attribute.

Parameters
idAttr:Attr

The attribute node.

isId:boolean

Whether the attribute is a of type ID.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if the specified node is not an attribute of this element.
Since
1.5, DOM Level 3
setIdAttributeNSback to summary
public void setIdAttributeNS(String namespaceURI, String localName, boolean isId) throws DOMException

If the parameter isId is true, this method declares the specified attribute to be a user-determined ID attribute . This affects the value of Attr.isId and the behavior of Document.getElementById, but does not change any schema that may be in use, in particular this does not affect the Attr.schemaTypeInfo of the specified Attr node. Use the value false for the parameter isId to undeclare an attribute for being a user-determined ID attribute.

Parameters
namespaceURI:String

The namespace URI of the attribute.

localName:String

The local name of the attribute.

isId:boolean

Whether the attribute is a of type ID.

Exceptions
DOMException:
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
NOT_FOUND_ERR: Raised if the specified node is not an attribute of this element.
Since
1.5, DOM Level 3