om.DomNode.removeChild

Deletes the specified child node from the current node.

Syntax

removeChild(
   oldChild om.DomNode )

oldChild is a reference to a node.

Usage

The removeChild() method detaches an om.DomNode element node from the current node.

The removed node is not destroyed, if it is still referenced by a variable. The removeChild() method will only break the link between the parent node and the child node. The child node still exists in the DOM document, but it is an orphan node, that can be attached to another parent node in the document.

Example

MAIN
    DEFINE doc  om.DomDocument,
           r om.DomNode,
           p om.DomNode,
           c om.DomNode

    LET doc = om.DomDocument.create("Items")

    LET r = doc.createElement("Zoo")

    LET p = doc.createElement("DodoList")
    CALL r.appendChild(p)

    LET c = doc.createElement("Dodo")
    CALL c.setAttribute("name", "momo")
    CALL c.setAttribute("gender", "male")
    CALL p.appendChild(c)

    CALL r.writeXml("file1.xml")

    CALL p.removeChild(c)

    -- c is orphan but still exists
    CALL c.writeXml("file2.xml")
    LET c = NULL -- unref/destroy the node

    CALL r.writeXml("file3.xml")
END MAIN

The above program will produce the following files:

file1.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ASCII'?>
<Zoo>
  <DodoList>
    <Dodo name="momo" gender="male"/>
  </DodoList>
</Zoo>

file2.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ASCII'?>
<Dodo name="momo" gender="male"/>

file3.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ASCII'?>
<Zoo>
  <DodoList/>
</Zoo>