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XML DOM: Remove Nodes

Let's see how to remove an element node with removeChild(), a text node, an attribute node by name and by object with removeAttribute() and removeAttributeNode().

Remove an Element Node with removeChild() Method​

The removeChild() method removes a specified node. When a node is removed, all its child nodes are also removed.

Example:

y = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0];  
xmlDoc.documentElement.removeChild(y);

Remove the Current Node​

The removeChild() method is the only way to remove a specified node.

When you have navigated to the node you want to remove, it is possible to remove that node using the parentNode property and the removeChild() method.

x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("tagname")[0];  
x.parentNode.removeChild(x);

Remove a Text Node with removeChild() Method​

The removeChild() method can also be used to remove a text node.

x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("tagname")[0];  
y = x.childNodes[0];  
x.removeChild(y);
note

It is not very common to use removeChild() just to remove text from a node. You can use the nodeValue property instead.

Clear a Text Node with nodeValue​

The nodeValue property can be used to change the value of a text node.

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

Remove Attribute Node by Name with removeAttribute()​

The removeAttribute() method removes the attribute with the specified name from the element.

The syntax is:

element.removeAttribute(attrName);

where attrName is a string that specifies the name of the attribute to remove from the element.

note

If the specified attribute does not exist, removeAttribute() returns without generating an error.

Example: remove the publisher attribute in the first <book> element:

x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book");  
x[0].removeAttribute("publisher");

Remove Attribute Node by Object with removeAttributeNode()​

The removeAttributeNode() removes the specified attribute from the element.

The syntax is:

let removedNode = element.removeAttribute(attrName);

where attributeNode is the attribute node to remove from the element.

note

It returns the attribute node that was removed.

Example: remove all attributes of first <book> element:

x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("book")[0];
while (x.attributes.length > 0) {  
    attNode = x.attributes[0];  
    old_att = x.removeAttributeNode(attNode);  
}

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