CharacterData

public interface CharacterData
implements Node

org.w3c.dom.CharacterData
CDATASection CDATA sections are used to escape blocks of text containing characters that would otherwise be regarded as markup. 
Comment This interface inherits from CharacterData and represents the content of a comment, i.e., all the characters between the starting ' <!--' and ending '-->'. 
Text The Text interface inherits from CharacterData and represents the textual content (termed character data in XML) of an Element or Attr


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.

Summary

Inherited constants

short ATTRIBUTE_NODE

The node is an Attr.

short CDATA_SECTION_NODE

The node is a CDATASection.

short COMMENT_NODE

The node is a Comment.

short DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE

The node is a DocumentFragment.

short DOCUMENT_NODE

The node is a Document.

short DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY

The node is contained by the reference node.

short DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS

The node contains the reference node.

short DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED

The two nodes are disconnected.

short DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING

The node follows the reference node.

short DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC

The determination of preceding versus following is implementation-specific.

short DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING

The second node precedes the reference node.

short DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE

The node is a DocumentType.

short ELEMENT_NODE

The node is an Element.

short ENTITY_NODE

The node is an Entity.

short ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE

The node is an EntityReference.

short NOTATION_NODE

The node is a Notation.

short PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE

The node is a ProcessingInstruction.

short TEXT_NODE

The node is a Text node.

Public methods

abstract void appendData(String arg)

Append the string to the end of the character data of the node.

abstract void deleteData(int offset, int count)

Remove a range of 16-bit units from the node.

abstract String getData()

The character data of the node that implements this interface.

abstract int getLength()

The number of 16-bit units that are available through data and the substringData method below.

abstract void insertData(int offset, String arg)

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

abstract void replaceData(int offset, int count, String arg)

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

abstract void setData(String data)

The character data of the node that implements this interface.

abstract String substringData(int offset, int count)

Extracts a range of data from the node.

Inherited methods

abstract Node appendChild(Node newChild)

Adds the node newChild to the end of the list of children of this node.

abstract Node cloneNode(boolean deep)

Returns a duplicate of this node, i.e., serves as a generic copy constructor for nodes.

abstract short compareDocumentPosition(Node other)

Compares the reference node, i.e.

abstract NamedNodeMap getAttributes()

A NamedNodeMap containing the attributes of this node (if it is an Element) or null otherwise.

abstract String getBaseURI()

The absolute base URI of this node or null if the implementation wasn't able to obtain an absolute URI.

abstract NodeList getChildNodes()

A NodeList that contains all children of this node.

abstract 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 .

abstract Node getFirstChild()

The first child of this node.

abstract Node getLastChild()

The last child of this node.

abstract String getLocalName()

Returns the local part of the qualified name of this node.

abstract String getNamespaceURI()

The namespace URI of this node, or null if it is unspecified (see ).

abstract Node getNextSibling()

The node immediately following this node.

abstract String getNodeName()

The name of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.

abstract short getNodeType()

A code representing the type of the underlying object, as defined above.

abstract String getNodeValue()

The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.

abstract Document getOwnerDocument()

The Document object associated with this node.

abstract Node getParentNode()

The parent of this node.

abstract String getPrefix()

The namespace prefix of this node, or null if it is unspecified.

abstract Node getPreviousSibling()

The node immediately preceding this node.

abstract String getTextContent()

This attribute returns the text content of this node and its descendants.

abstract Object getUserData(String key)

Retrieves the object associated to a key on a this node.

abstract boolean hasAttributes()

Returns whether this node (if it is an element) has any attributes.

abstract boolean hasChildNodes()

Returns whether this node has any children.

abstract Node insertBefore(Node newChild, Node refChild)

Inserts the node newChild before the existing child node refChild.

abstract boolean isDefaultNamespace(String namespaceURI)

This method checks if the specified namespaceURI is the default namespace or not.

abstract boolean isEqualNode(Node arg)

Tests whether two nodes are equal.

abstract boolean isSameNode(Node other)

Returns whether this node is the same node as the given one.

abstract 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 .

abstract String lookupNamespaceURI(String prefix)

Look up the namespace URI associated to the given prefix, starting from this node.

abstract String lookupPrefix(String namespaceURI)

Look up the prefix associated to the given namespace URI, starting from this node.

abstract 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.

abstract Node removeChild(Node oldChild)

Removes the child node indicated by oldChild from the list of children, and returns it.

abstract Node replaceChild(Node newChild, Node oldChild)

Replaces the child node oldChild with newChild in the list of children, and returns the oldChild node.

abstract void setNodeValue(String nodeValue)

The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.

abstract void setPrefix(String prefix)

The namespace prefix of this node, or null if it is unspecified.

abstract void setTextContent(String textContent)

This attribute returns the text content of this node and its descendants.

abstract Object setUserData(String key, Object data, UserDataHandler handler)

Associate an object to a key on this node.

Public methods

appendData

Added in API level 1
public abstract void appendData (String arg)

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 String: The DOMString to append.

Throws
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

deleteData

Added in API level 1
public abstract void deleteData (int offset, 
                int count)

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

Parameters
offset int: The offset from which to start removing.

count int: 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.

getData

Added in API level 1
public abstract String getData ()

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.

Returns
String

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

getLength

Added in API level 1
public abstract 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.

Returns
int

insertData

Added in API level 1
public abstract void insertData (int offset, 
                String arg)

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

Parameters
offset int: The character offset at which to insert.

arg String: 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.

replaceData

Added in API level 1
public abstract void replaceData (int offset, 
                int count, 
                String arg)

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

Parameters
offset int: The offset from which to start replacing.

count int: 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 String: 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.

setData

Added in API level 1
public abstract void setData (String data)

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.

Parameters
data String

Throws
DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly.

substringData

Added in API level 1
public abstract String substringData (int offset, 
                int count)

Extracts a range of data from the node.

Parameters
offset int: Start offset of substring to extract.

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

Returns
String 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.