John Adriaan

According to the "Node Types" table on this W3Schools page, only the Document Node has a limit to the number of child Nodes (other than None!) of any one type:

Quote

"Element (max. one)"

The implication is that there can be any number of any other (listed) Child node in a Parent Node.

• For many Nodes, that's a natural state:
  An Element Node can have many other Child Element Nodes to define the complete Tree.
• For some Nodes, it's a little less natural:
  For example, one might think that a Comment Node is commenting on its Parent Node. Nope!
  A Comment Node is merely a child of its Parent, and is likely commenting on the following (or preceding!) Sibling Node - not the Parent Node.
• But there are some Nodes where it's not obvious how multiple Child Nodes of the same Type should be represented.

Take, for example, the Element Node. It allows - in fact needs - a Text Node as a Child Node to store the actual text of Leaf Elements.

One could say that in a typical XML document, all Element Nodes have:

• either zero (for empty Elements), one, or multiple Child Element Nodes;
• or exactly one Child Text Node.

But this isn't (apparently) stipulated in the standard - hence this post.

1. If a Child list has Child Text Nodes interspersed amongst Child Element Nodes, do they just get represented like that?

   <Parent>
     This is the first piece of text from the first Text Node.
     <Child1>
       ...
     </Child1>
     <Child2>
       ...
     </Child2>
     This is the second piece of text from the second Text Node.
     <Child3>
       ...
     </Child3>
   </Parent>

    

2. How does are multiple Child Text Nodes represented?

   A simple concatenation of all the Texts? In the given order?

   <Parent>
     This is the first piece of text from the first Text Node. This is the second piece of text from the second Text Node.
   </Parent>

3. How does one represent Child Text Nodes of Attr Nodes, as described/permitted in the above Node Types Table?

    

    

    

    

And I've not even considered EntityReference Nodes yet - which are also explicitly described as legal Child Nodes of Attr Nodes. (How?)