# class Element

Extends Parent
Includes Namespace

Represents a tagged XML element. Elements are characterized by having children, attributes, and names, and can themselves be children.

## Attributes

- attributes
- elements

## Methods

- add_attribute
- add_element
- add_namespace
- add_text
- clone
- delete_attribute
- delete_element
- delete_namespace
- each_element
- each_element_with_attribute
- each_element_with_text
- each_with_something
- Element
- get_elements
- get_text
- has_attributes
- has_elements
- has_text
- initialize
- namespace
- next_element
- parse
- parse_children
- parse_error
- prefixes
- previous_element
- root
- text
- text=
- write
- write_children

## Attributes

attributes (reader) Mechanisms for accessing attributes and child elements of this element.
elements (reader) Mechanisms for accessing attributes and child elements of this element.

## Methods

### add_attribute

#### Arguments

key
can be either an Attribute or a String. If an Attribute, the attribute is added to the list of Element attributes. If String, the argument is used as the name of the new attribute, and the value parameter must be supplied.
value<nil>
not required, and is ignored if the first argument is an Attribute. Otherwise, this is a String, and is used as the value of the new Attribute.
Returns the Attribute added

Adds an attribute to this element, overwriting any existing attribute by the same name.

### add_element

#### Arguments

element<nil>
optional. If Element, the element is added. Otherwise, a new Element is constructed with the argument (see Element.initialize).
attrs<nil>
If supplied, must be a hash of String name,value pairs, which will be used to set the attributes of the new Element.
Returns the Element that was added

Adds a child to this element, optionally setting attributes in the element.

### add_namespace

#### Arguments

prefix
the namespace. If the second argument is not supplied, this should be the URI of the default namespace.
uri<nil>

Adds a namespace to this element

### add_text

#### Arguments

text
if a String, a new Text instance is created and added to the parent. If Text, the object is added directly.
Returns self. NOTE that contrary to most REXML methods, the object added to the parent is not returned.

A helper method to add a Text child. Actual Text instances can be added with regular Parent methods, such as add() and <<()

### clone

### delete_attribute

#### Arguments

key
either an Attribute or a String. In either case, the attribute is found by matching the attribute name to the argument, and then removed. If no attribute is found, no action is taken.
Returns the attribute removed, or nil if this Element did not contain a matching attribute

Removes an attribute

### delete_element

#### Arguments

element
Must be an Element, String, or Integer. If Element, the element is removed. If String, the element is found (via XPath) and removed. NOTE that this means that any parent can remove any descendant. If Integer, the Element indexed by that number will be removed.
Returns the element that was removed.

Deletes a child element.

### delete_namespace

#### Arguments

namespace<xmlns>

NEEDS DOCUMENTATION

### each_element

#### Arguments

xpath<nil>
block

Synonym for elements.each

### each_element_with_attribute

#### Arguments

key
the name of the attribute to search for
value
the value of the attribute
max<0>
(optional) causes this method to return after yielding for this number of matching children
name<nil>
(optional) if supplied, this is an XPath that filters the children to check.
block

Iterates through the children, yielding for each Element that has a particular attribute set.

### each_element_with_text

#### Arguments

text
max<0>
(optional) causes this method to return after yielding for this number of matching children
name<nil>
(optional) if supplied, this is an XPath that filters the children to check.
block

Iterates through the children, yielding for each Element that has a particular text set. @see text

### each_with_something

#### Arguments

test
max<0>
name<nil>

A private helper method

### Element

#### Arguments

parse_stream source
listener

### get_elements

#### Arguments

xpath
any XPath by which to search for elements in the tree
Returns an array of Elements that match the supplied path

This is a little slower than calling elements.each directly.

### get_text

#### Arguments

path<nil>
Returns the first Text child encountered.

This is the same method as text(), only this method returns the actual Text object, rather than the String content.

### has_attributes

Returns true if this element has any attributes set, false otherwise.

### has_elements

Returns true if this element has at least one child Element

### has_text

Returns true if this element has at least one Text child

### initialize

#### Arguments

arg<UNDEFINED>
if not supplied, will be set to the default value. If a String, the name of this object will be set to the argument. If an Element, the object will be shallowly cloned; name, attributes, and namespaces will be copied. If a Source, the source will be scanned and parsed for an Element, and all child elements will be recursively parsed as well.
parent<nil>
if supplied, must be a Parent, and will be used as the parent of this object.

Constructor

### namespace

#### Arguments

prefix<nil>
Returns the URI for a namespace, or the empty string if no such namespace is declared

### next_element

Returns the next sibling that is an element, or nil if there is no Element sibling after this one

### parse

#### Arguments

source

### parse_children

#### Arguments

source

A private helper method

### parse_error

#### Arguments

source
message<nil>

### prefixes

Returns an Array of all defined namespaces

### previous_element

Returns the previous sibling that is an element, or nil if there is no Element sibling prior to this one

### root

Returns the root of the document that this element belongs to. If this element doesn't belong to a document, but does belong to another Element, the parent's root will be returned, until the earliest ancestor is found.

### text

#### Arguments

path<nil>
Returns the String content of the first child text element encountered.

A convenience method which returns the first child text element. NOTE that an element may have multiple Text elements, perhaps separated by other children; consider: "<p>some text <b>this is bold!</b> more text<p>" The element <p> has two text elements, "some text " and " more text". This method would return only the first, "some text ".

### text=

#### Arguments

text
If a String, a new Text child is created and added to this Element as the first Text child. If Text, the text is set as the first Child element. If nil, then any existing first Text child is removed.
Returns self. NOTE that contrary to most REXML methods, the replaced content is not returned.

Sets the first Text child of this object. See text() for a discussion about Text children. If a Text child already exists, the child is replaced by this content. This means that Text content can be deleted by calling this method with a nil argument. In this case, the next Text child becomes the first Text child. In no case is the order of any siblings disturbed.

### write

#### Arguments

writer
A String or IO (or any object supporting <<(String))
indent<0>
if supplied, must be an Integer, which is then used to determine the indentation of this element and its children.

Writes out this element, and recursively, all children.

### write_children

#### Arguments

writer
indent

A private helper method