### ----------------------------------------------------
### -- LibXML
### -- Licenses: Artistic-2.0
### -- Authors: David Warring
### -- File: docs/_CharacterData.md
### ----------------------------------------------------
[[Raku LibXML Project]](https://libxml-raku.github.io)
 / [[LibXML Module]](https://libxml-raku.github.io/LibXML-raku)
 / [_CharacterData](https://libxml-raku.github.io/LibXML-raku/_CharacterData)



This role models the W3C DOM CharacterData abstract class

Methods
-------

Many functions listed here are extensively documented in the DOM Level 3 specification ([http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/](http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/)). Please refer to the specification for extensive documentation. 

### method data

    method data() returns Str

Although there exists the `nodeValue` attribute in the Node class, the DOM specification defines data as a separate attribute. `LibXML` implements these two attributes not as different attributes, but as aliases, such as `libxml2` does. Therefore

    $text.data;

and

    $text.nodeValue;

will have the same result and are not different entities.

### method setData

    method setData(Str $text) returns Str

This function sets or replaces text content to a node. The node has to be of the type "text", "cdata" or "comment".

### method substringData

    method substringData(UInt $offset, UInt $length) returns Str;

Extracts a range of data from the node. (DOM Spec) This function takes the two parameters $offset and $length and returns the sub-string, if available.

If the node contains no data or $offset refers to an non-existing string index, this function will return *Str:U*. If $length is out of range `substringData` will return the data starting at $offset instead of causing an error.

### method appendData

    method appendData( Str $somedata ) returns Str;

Appends a string to the end of the existing data. If the current text node contains no data, this function has the same effect as `setData`.

### method insertData

    method insertData(UInt $offset, UInt $string) returns Str;

Inserts the parameter $string at the given $offset of the existing data of the node. This operation will not remove existing data, but change the order of the existing data.

If $offset is out of range, `insertData` will have the same behaviour as `appendData`.

### method deleteData

    method deleteData(UInt $offset, UInt $length);

This method removes a chunk from the existing node data at the given offset. The $length parameter tells, how many characters should be removed from the string.

### method deleteDataString

    method deleteDataString(Str $remstring, Bool :$g);

This method removes a chunk from the existing node data. Since the DOM spec is quite unhandy if you already know `which` string to remove from a text node, this method allows more Rakuish code :)

The functions takes two parameters: *$string* and optional the *:g* flag. If :g is not set, `deleteDataString` will remove only the first occurrence of $string. If $g is *True*`deleteDataString` will remove all occurrences of *$string* from the node data.

### method replaceData

    method replaceData(UInt $offset, UInt $length, Str $string) returns Str;

The DOM style version to replace node data.

### method replaceDataString

    my subset StrOrRegex where Str|Regex;
    my subset StrOrCode where Str|Code;
    method replaceDataString(StrOrRegex $old, StrOrCode $new, *%opts);

The more programmer friendly version of replaceData() :)

Instead of giving offsets and length one can specify the exact string or a regular expression (*$old*) to be replaced. Additionally the *:g* option allows one to replace all occurrences of *$old*.

*NOTE:* This is a shortcut for

    my $datastr = $node.data ~~ s/somecond/replacement/g; # 'g' is just an example for any flag

### method splitText

    method splitText(UInt $offset) returns LibXML::Text

Breaks this node into two nodes at the specified offset, keeping both in the tree as siblings. After being split, this node will contain all the content up to the offset point. A new text node containing all the content at and after the offset point, is returned.

Copyright
---------

2001-2007, AxKit.com Ltd.

2002-2006, Christian Glahn.

2006-2009, Petr Pajas.

License
-------

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0 [http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_license_2_0](http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_license_2_0).



