How to detect an empty tag in xml document using jdom

Question

I'm using JDOM to parse an xml document that could be like this:

<person>
  <name id="blah"> xyz </name>
  <friends />
</person>

I'm trying to find out what the correct way to detect an empty tag such as <friends /> or <friends></friends>

would be.

Jim Garrison · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-26 18:15:54Z

1

Get the Element for the <friends> tag and for an empty element the getChildren() method should return an empty list.

answered Jun 26, 2015 at 18:15

Jim Garrison

87k20 gold badges162 silver badges197 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

hipsandy Over a year ago

Thanks Jim. But when there is a non-empty element without any children such as below, the test fails. <person> <name id="blah"> xyz </name> <friends> list of friends </friends> </person>

Jim Garrison Over a year ago

Where is the "empty element" in that? I don't understand. Do you mean to say the <friends> tag is empty because it contains only text and not other tags? In that case you must examine the contained element(s) to distinguish between text and other tags.

Jim Garrison Over a year ago

Please put all this clarification into the original question, not in comments. When the question is clear I'll update my answer.

hipsandy Over a year ago

Ykw, you're right. The example in my comment doesn't qualify as an empty element.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to detect an empty tag in xml document using jdom

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related