SelectNodes vs. GetElementsByTagName

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hello All:

Does anyone know the differnce between the GetElementsByTagName method and
the SelectNodes method? I know that they take different arguments. They
also both return a NodeList. I'm wondering when would I use one vs. the
other.

TIA,
 
SelectNodes takes an XPath, which provides considerably more flexibility
than the simpler GetElemetsByTagName. If you simply need all elements,
reguardless of attribute values, or parent's, which have a specific tag,
then use GetElementsByTagName, otherwise, you don' thave much of a choice
but to use SelectNodes.

Not an XPath expert, but I believe that:

NodeList nodes = document.GetElementsByTagName("title");

is the same as

NodeList nodes = document.SelectNodes("//title");

but with SelectNodes, you can do stuff like:

NodeList nodes =
document.SelectNodes("/Invetory/Books/Title[@type='childrens']"); which you
obviously can't do with the first one..

Karl
 
Thanks Karl.
--
Joe

VB.NET/C#/ASP.NET/ASP/VB/C++/Web and DB development/VBA Automation


Karl Seguin said:
SelectNodes takes an XPath, which provides considerably more flexibility
than the simpler GetElemetsByTagName. If you simply need all elements,
reguardless of attribute values, or parent's, which have a specific tag,
then use GetElementsByTagName, otherwise, you don' thave much of a choice
but to use SelectNodes.

Not an XPath expert, but I believe that:

NodeList nodes = document.GetElementsByTagName("title");

is the same as

NodeList nodes = document.SelectNodes("//title");

but with SelectNodes, you can do stuff like:

NodeList nodes =
document.SelectNodes("/Invetory/Books/Title[@type='childrens']"); which you
obviously can't do with the first one..

Karl
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