Try it Yourself - Examples
The examples below use the XML file books.xml.
Add a node after the last child node
This example uses appendChild() to add a child node to an existing node.
Add a node before a specified child node
This example uses insertBefore() to insert a node before a specified child node.
Add a new attribute
This example uses the setAttribute() method to add a new attribute.
Add data to a text node
This example uses insertData() to insert data into an existing text node.
Add a Node - appendChild()
The appendChild() method adds a child node to an existing node.
The new node is added (appended) after any existing child nodes.
Note: Use insertBefore() if the position of the node is important.
This code fragment creates an element (<edition>), and adds it after the last child of the first <book> element:
Example
newEle = xmlDoc.createElement("edition");
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0].appendChild(newEle);
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Example explained:
- Suppose "books.xml" is loaded into xmlDoc
- Create a new node <edition>
- Append the node to the first <book> element
This code fragment does the same as above, but the new element is added with a value:
Example
newEle = xmlDoc.createElement("edition");
newText=xmlDoc.createTextNode("first");
newEle.appendChild(newText);
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0].appendChild(newEle);
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Example explained:
- Suppose "books.xml" is loaded into xmlDoc
- Create a new node <edition>
- Create a new text node "first"
- Append the text node to the <edition> node
- Append the <addition> node to the <book> element
Insert a Node - insertBefore()
The insertBefore() method inserts a node before a specified child node.
This method is useful when the position of the added node is important:
Example
newNode = xmlDoc.createElement("book");
x = xmlDoc.documentElement;
y = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[3];
x.insertBefore(newNode,y);
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Example explained:
- Suppose "books.xml" is loaded into xmlDoc
- Create a new element node <book>
- Insert the new node in front of the last <book> element node
If the second parameter of insertBefore() is null, the new node will be added after the last existing child node.
x.insertBefore(newNode,null) and x.appendChild(newNode) will both append a new child node to x.
Add a New Attribute
The setAttribute() method sets the value of an attribute.
Example explained:
- Suppose "books.xml" has been loaded into xmlDoc
- Set the value of the attribute "edition" to "first" for the first <book> element
There is no method called add Attribute()
The setAttribute()
will create a new attribute if the attribute does not exist.
Note: If the attribute already exists, the setAttribute() method will overwrite the existing value.
Add Text to a Text Node - insertData()
The insertData() method inserts data into an existing text node.
The insertData() method has two parameters:
- offset - Where to begin inserting characters (starts at zero)
- string - The string to insert
The following code fragment will add "Easy" to the text node of the first <title> element of the loaded XML:
Example
xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[0].childNodes[0].insertData(0,"Easy ");
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