DOMNode::appendChild

(PHP 5)

DOMNode::appendChild — Adds new child at the end of the children

Description

DOMNode DOMNode::appendChild ( DOMNode $newnode )

This functions appends a child to an existing list of children or creates a new list of children. The child can be created with e.g. DOMDocument::createElement, DOMDocument::createTextNode etc. or simply by using any other node.

Parameters

newnode: The appended child.

Return Values

The node added.

Errors/Exceptions

DOM_NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly or if the previous parent of the node being inserted is readonly.
DOM_HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not allow children of the type of the newnode node, or if the node to append is one of this node's ancestors or this node itself.
DOM_WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newnode was created from a different document than the one that created this node.

Examples

The following example will add a new element node to a fresh document.

Example #1 Adding a child


<?php

$doc = new DOMDocument;

$node = $doc->createElement("para");
$newnode = $doc->appendChild($node);

echo $doc->saveXML();
?>


What's not mentioned here is that DOMNode::appendChild() can also be used to move an existing node to another part of the DOMDocument, e.g.



<?php

$doc = new DOMDocument();

$doc->loadXML("<foobar><bar/><foo/></foobar>");

$bar = $doc->documentElement->firstChild;

$foo = $doc->documentElement->lastChild;

$foo->appendChild($bar);

print $doc->saveXML();

?>



This produces:



<?xml version="1.0"?>

<foobar><foo><bar/></foo></foobar>



Note that the nodes "<foo/>" and "<bar/>" were siblings, i.e. the first and last child of "<foobar>" but using appendChild() we were able to move "<bar/>" so that it is a child of "<foo/>".



This saves you the trouble of doing a DOMNode::removeChild($bar) to remove "<bar/>" before appending it as a child of "<foo/>". 



Kris Dover

jrtayloriv at gmail dot com
30-Mar-2008 12:56


If you want to create nested DOM elements:



<?php

    $doc = new DOMDocument();

    

    $foo = $doc->createElement("foo");

    $doc->appendChild($foo);



    $bar = $doc->createElement("bar");

    $foo->appendChild($bar);



    $bazz = $doc->createElement("bazz");

    $foo->appendChild($bazz);



    echo $doc->saveXML();

?>



Is equivalent to:



<foo>

  <bar></bar>

  <bazz></bazz>

</foo>

add a note

DOMNode::cloneNode

DOMNode

Last updated: Fri, 20 Nov 2009