phpman > perldoc > XML::DOM::Attr(3pm)

NAME
    XML::DOM::Attr - An XML attribute in XML::DOM

DESCRIPTION
    XML::DOM::Attr extends XML::DOM::Node.

    The Attr nodes built by the XML::DOM::Parser always have one child node which is a Text node
    containing the expanded string value (i.e. EntityReferences are always expanded.)
    EntityReferences may be added when modifying or creating a new Document.

    The Attr interface represents an attribute in an Element object. Typically the allowable values
    for the attribute are defined in a document type definition.

    Attr objects inherit the Node interface, but since they are not actually child nodes of the
    element they describe, the DOM does not consider them part of the document tree. Thus, the Node
    attributes parentNode, previousSibling, and nextSibling have a undef value for Attr objects. The
    DOM takes the view that attributes are properties of elements rather than having a separate
    identity from the elements they are associated with; this should make it more efficient to
    implement such features as default attributes associated with all elements of a given type.
    Furthermore, Attr nodes may not be immediate children of a DocumentFragment. However, they can
    be associated with Element nodes contained within a DocumentFragment. In short, users and
    implementors of the DOM need to be aware that Attr nodes have some things in common with other
    objects inheriting the Node interface, but they also are quite distinct.

    The attribute's effective value is determined as follows: if this attribute has been explicitly
    assigned any value, that value is the attribute's effective value; otherwise, if there is a
    declaration for this attribute, and that declaration includes a default value, then that default
    value is the attribute's effective value; otherwise, the attribute does not exist on this
    element in the structure model until it has been explicitly added. Note that the nodeValue
    attribute on the Attr instance can also be used to retrieve the string version of the
    attribute's value(s).

    In XML, where the value of an attribute can contain entity references, the child nodes of the
    Attr node provide a representation in which entity references are not expanded. These child
    nodes may be either Text or EntityReference nodes. Because the attribute type may be unknown,
    there are no tokenized attribute values.

  METHODS
    getValue
        On retrieval, the value of the attribute is returned as a string. Character and general
        entity references are replaced with their values.

    setValue (str)
        DOM Spec: On setting, this creates a Text node with the unparsed contents of the string.

    getName
        Returns the name of this attribute.