Interface CharacterData

All Superinterfaces:

Node

All Known Subinterfaces:

CDATASection, Comment, Text

public interface CharacterData
extends Node

The CharacterData interface extends Node with a set of attributes and methods for accessing character data in the DOM. For clarity this set is defined here rather than on each object that uses these attributes and methods. No DOM objects correspond directly to CharacterData, though Text and others do inherit the interface from it. All offsets in this interface start from 0.

As explained in the DOMString interface, text strings in the DOM are represented in UTF-16, i.e. as a sequence of 16-bit units. In the following, the term 16-bit units is used whenever necessary to indicate that indexing on CharacterData is done in 16-bit units.

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

Since:

1.4, DOM Level 2

Field Summary

Fields declared in interface Node

ATTRIBUTE_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY, DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS, DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED, DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING, DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC, DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING, DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, ELEMENT_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE, TEXT_NODE

Modifier and Type	Field	Description
static final short	ATTRIBUTE_NODE	The node is an Attr.
static final short	CDATA_SECTION_NODE	The node is a CDATASection.
static final short	COMMENT_NODE	The node is a Comment.
static final short	DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE	The node is a DocumentFragment.
static final short	DOCUMENT_NODE	The node is a Document.
static final short	DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY	The node is contained by the reference node.
static final short	DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS	The node contains the reference node.
static final short	DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED	The two nodes are disconnected.
static final short	DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING	The node follows the reference node.
static final short	DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC	The determination of preceding versus following is implementation-specific.
static final short	DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING	The second node precedes the reference node.
static final short	DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE	The node is a DocumentType.
static final short	ELEMENT_NODE	The node is an Element.
static final short	ENTITY_NODE	The node is an Entity.
static final short	ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE	The node is an EntityReference.
static final short	NOTATION_NODE	The node is a Notation.
static final short	PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE	The node is a ProcessingInstruction.
static final short	TEXT_NODE	The node is a Text node.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
void	appendData(String arg)	Append the string to the end of the character data of the node.
void	deleteData(int offset, int count)	Remove a range of 16-bit units from the node.
String	getData()	The character data of the node that implements this interface.
int	getLength()	The number of 16-bit units that are available through data and the substringData method below.
void	insertData(int offset, String arg)	Insert a string at the specified 16-bit unit offset.
void	replaceData(int offset, int count, String arg)	Replace the characters starting at the specified 16-bit unit offset with the specified string.
void	setData(String data)	The character data of the node that implements this interface.
String	substringData(int offset, int count)	Extracts a range of data from the node.

Methods declared in interface Node

appendChild, cloneNode, compareDocumentPosition, getAttributes, getBaseURI, getChildNodes, getFeature, getFirstChild, getLastChild, getLocalName, getNamespaceURI, getNextSibling, getNodeName, getNodeType, getNodeValue, getOwnerDocument, getParentNode, getPrefix, getPreviousSibling, getTextContent, getUserData, hasAttributes, hasChildNodes, insertBefore, isDefaultNamespace, isEqualNode, isSameNode, isSupported, lookupNamespaceURI, lookupPrefix, normalize, removeChild, replaceChild, setNodeValue, setPrefix, setTextContent, setUserData

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
Node	appendChild(Node newChild)	Adds the node newChild to the end of the list of children of this node.
Node	cloneNode(boolean deep)	Returns a duplicate of this node, i.e., serves as a generic copy constructor for nodes.
short	compareDocumentPosition(Node other)	Compares the reference node, i.e. the node on which this method is being called, with a node, i.e. the one passed as a parameter, with regard to their position in the document and according to the document order.
NamedNodeMap	getAttributes()	A NamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node (if it is an Element) or null otherwise.
String	getBaseURI()	The absolute base URI of this node or null if the implementation wasn't able to obtain an absolute URI.
NodeList	getChildNodes()	A NodeList that contains all children of this node.
Object	getFeature(String feature, String version)	This method returns a specialized object which implements the specialized APIs of the specified feature and version, as specified in .
Node	getFirstChild()	The first child of this node.
Node	getLastChild()	The last child of this node.
String	getLocalName()	Returns the local part of the qualified name of this node.
String	getNamespaceURI()	The namespace URI of this node, or null if it is unspecified (see ).
Node	getNextSibling()	The node immediately following this node.
String	getNodeName()	The name of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
short	getNodeType()	A code representing the type of the underlying object, as defined above.
String	getNodeValue()	The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
Document	getOwnerDocument()	The Document object associated with this node.
Node	getParentNode()	The parent of this node.
String	getPrefix()	The namespace prefix of this node, or null if it is unspecified.
Node	getPreviousSibling()	The node immediately preceding this node.
String	getTextContent()	This attribute returns the text content of this node and its descendants.
Object	getUserData(String key)	Retrieves the object associated to a key on a this node.
boolean	hasAttributes()	Returns whether this node (if it is an element) has any attributes.
boolean	hasChildNodes()	Returns whether this node has any children.
Node	insertBefore(Node newChild, Node refChild)	Inserts the node newChild before the existing child node refChild.
boolean	isDefaultNamespace(String namespaceURI)	This method checks if the specified namespaceURI is the default namespace or not.
boolean	isEqualNode(Node arg)	Tests whether two nodes are equal.
boolean	isSameNode(Node other)	Returns whether this node is the same node as the given one.
boolean	isSupported(String feature, String version)	Tests whether the DOM implementation implements a specific feature and that feature is supported by this node, as specified in .
String	lookupNamespaceURI(String prefix)	Look up the namespace URI associated to the given prefix, starting from this node.
String	lookupPrefix(String namespaceURI)	Look up the prefix associated to the given namespace URI, starting from this node.
void	normalize()	Puts all Text nodes in the full depth of the sub-tree underneath this Node, including attribute nodes, into a "normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments, processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity references) separates Text nodes, i.e., there are neither adjacent Text nodes nor empty Text nodes.
Node	removeChild(Node oldChild)	Removes the child node indicated by oldChild from the list of children, and returns it.
Node	replaceChild(Node newChild, Node oldChild)	Replaces the child node oldChild with newChild in the list of children, and returns the oldChild node.
void	setNodeValue(String nodeValue)	The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
void	setPrefix(String prefix)	The namespace prefix of this node, or null if it is unspecified.
void	setTextContent(String textContent)	This attribute returns the text content of this node and its descendants.
Object	setUserData(String key, Object data, UserDataHandler handler)	Associate an object to a key on this node.

Method Details

getData

String getData()
        throws DOMException

The character data of the node that implements this interface. The DOM implementation may not put arbitrary limits on the amount of data that may be stored in a CharacterData node. However, implementation limits may mean that the entirety of a node's data may not fit into a single DOMString. In such cases, the user may call substringData to retrieve the data in appropriately sized pieces.

Throws:

DOMException - DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return more characters than fit in a DOMString variable on the implementation platform.

setData

void setData(String data)
      throws DOMException

The character data of the node that implements this interface. The DOM implementation may not put arbitrary limits on the amount of data that may be stored in a CharacterData node. However, implementation limits may mean that the entirety of a node's data may not fit into a single DOMString. In such cases, the user may call substringData to retrieve the data in appropriately sized pieces.

Throws:

DOMException - NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly.

getLength

int getLength()

The number of 16-bit units that are available through data and the substringData method below. This may have the value zero, i.e., CharacterData nodes may be empty.

substringData

String substringData(int offset,
 int count)
              throws DOMException

Extracts a range of data from the node.

Parameters:

offset - Start offset of substring to extract.

count - The number of 16-bit units to extract.

Returns:

The specified substring. If the sum of offset and count exceeds the length, then all 16-bit units to the end of the data are returned.

Throws:

DOMException - INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data, or if the specified count is negative.
DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified range of text does not fit into a DOMString.

appendData

void appendData(String arg)
         throws DOMException

Append the string to the end of the character data of the node. Upon success, data provides access to the concatenation of data and the DOMString specified.

Parameters:

arg - The DOMString to append.

Throws:

DOMException - NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

insertData

void insertData(int offset,
 String arg)
         throws DOMException

Insert a string at the specified 16-bit unit offset.

Parameters:

offset - The character offset at which to insert.

arg - The DOMString to insert.

Throws:

DOMException - INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

deleteData

void deleteData(int offset,
 int count)
         throws DOMException

Remove a range of 16-bit units from the node. Upon success, data and length reflect the change.

Parameters:

offset - The offset from which to start removing.

count - The number of 16-bit units to delete. If the sum of offset and count exceeds length then all 16-bit units from offset to the end of the data are deleted.

Throws:

DOMException - INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data, or if the specified count is negative.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

replaceData

void replaceData(int offset,
 int count,
 String arg)
          throws DOMException

Replace the characters starting at the specified 16-bit unit offset with the specified string.

Parameters:

offset - The offset from which to start replacing.

count - The number of 16-bit units to replace. If the sum of offset and count exceeds length, then all 16-bit units to the end of the data are replaced; (i.e., the effect is the same as a remove method call with the same range, followed by an append method invocation).

arg - The DOMString with which the range must be replaced.

Throws:

DOMException - INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data, or if the specified count is negative.
NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.