THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB DEVELOPER SITE
×

XML Tutorial

XML HOME XML Introduction XML How to use XML Tree XML Syntax XML Elements XML Attributes XML Namespaces XML Display XML HttpRequest XML Parser XML DOM XML XPath XML XSLT XML XQuery XML XLink XML Validator XML DTD XML Schema XML Server XML Examples XML Quiz XML Certificate

XML AJAX

AJAX Introduction AJAX XMLHttp AJAX Request AJAX Response AJAX XML File AJAX PHP AJAX ASP AJAX Database AJAX Applications AJAX Examples

XML DOM

DOM Introduction DOM Nodes DOM Accessing DOM Node Info DOM Node List DOM Traversing DOM Navigating DOM Get Values DOM Change Nodes DOM Remove Nodes DOM Replace Nodes DOM Create Nodes DOM Add Nodes DOM Clone Nodes DOM Examples

XPath Tutorial

XPath Introduction XPath Nodes XPath Syntax XPath Axes XPath Operators XPath Examples

XSLT Tutorial

XSLT Introduction XSL Languages XSLT Transform XSLT <template> XSLT <value-of> XSLT <for-each> XSLT <sort> XSLT <if> XSLT <choose> XSLT Apply XSLT on the Client XSLT on the Server XSLT Edit XML XSLT Examples

XQuery Tutorial

XQuery Introduction XQuery Example XQuery FLWOR XQuery HTML XQuery Terms XQuery Syntax XQuery Add XQuery Select XQuery Functions

XML DTD

DTD Introduction DTD Building Blocks DTD Elements DTD Attributes DTD Elements vs Attr DTD Entities DTD Examples

XSD Schema

XSD Introduction XSD How To XSD <schema> XSD Elements XSD Attributes XSD Restrictions

XSD Complex

XSD Elements XSD Empty XSD Elements Only XSD Text Only XSD Mixed XSD Indicators XSD <any> XSD <anyAttribute> XSD Substitution XSD Example

XSD Data

XSD String XSD Date XSD Numeric XSD Misc XSD Reference

Web Services

XML Services XML WSDL XML SOAP XML RDF XML RSS

References

DOM Node Types DOM Node DOM NodeList DOM NamedNodeMap DOM Document DOM Element DOM Attribute DOM Text DOM CDATA DOM Comment DOM XMLHttpRequest DOM Parser XSLT Elements XSLT/XPath Functions

XML DOM Replace Nodes


The replaceChild() method replaces a specified node.

The nodeValue property replaces text in a text node.


Try it Yourself - Examples

The examples below use the XML file books.xml.

Replace an element node
This example uses replaceChild() to replace the first <book> node.

Replace data in a text node
This example uses the nodeValue property to replace data in a text node.

×

Header


Replace an Element Node

The replaceChild() method is used to replace a node.

The following code fragment replaces the first <book> element:

Example

xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x=xmlDoc.documentElement;

//create a book element, title element and a text node
newNode=xmlDoc.createElement("book");
newTitle=xmlDoc.createElement("title");
newText=xmlDoc.createTextNode("A Notebook");

//add the text node to the title node,
newTitle.appendChild(newText);
//add the title node to the book node
newNode.appendChild(newTitle);

y=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0]
//replace the first book node with the new node
x.replaceChild(newNode,y);
Try it Yourself »

Example explained:

  1. Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc
  2. Create a new element node <book>
  3. Create a new element node <title>
  4. Create a new text node with the text "A Notebook"
  5. Append the new text node to the new element node <title>
  6. Append the new element node <title> to the new element node <book>
  7. Replace the first <book> element node with the new <book> element node

Replace Data In a Text Node

The replaceData() method is used to replace data in a text node.

The replaceData() method has three parameters:

  • offset - Where to begin replacing characters. Offset value starts at zero
  • length - How many characters to replace
  • string - The string to insert

Example

xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[0].childNodes[0];

x.replaceData(0,8,"Easy");
Try it Yourself »

Example explained:

  1. Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc
  2. Get the text node of the first <title> element node
  3. Use the replaceData method to replace the eight first characters from the text node with "Easy"

Use the nodeValue Property Instead

It is easier to replace the data in a text node using the nodeValue property.

The following code fragment will replace the text node value in the first <title> element with "Easy Italian":

Example

xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[0].childNodes[0];

x.nodeValue="Easy Italian";
Try it Yourself »

Example explained:

  1. Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc
  2. Get the text node of the first <title> element node
  3. Use the nodeValue property to change the text of the text node

You can read more about changing node values in the Change Node chapter.