== Class Child

Class Child includes module Node;
see {Tasks for Node}[node_rdoc.html].

:include: ../tocs/child_toc.rdoc

=== Relationships

==== Task: Set the Parent

Use method {Child#parent=}[../../../../REXML/Parent.html#method-i-parent-3D]
to set the parent:

  e0 = REXML::Element.new('foo')
  e1 = REXML::Element.new('bar')
  e1.parent # => nil
  e1.parent = e0
  e1.parent # => <foo/>

==== Task: Insert Previous Sibling

Use method {Child#previous_sibling=}[../../../../REXML/Parent.html#method-i-previous_sibling-3D]
to insert a previous sibling:

  xml_string = '<root><a/><c/></root>'
  d = REXML::Document.new(xml_string)
  d.root.to_a   # => [<a/>, <c/>]
  c = d.root[1] # => <c/>
  b = REXML::Element.new('b')
  c.previous_sibling = b
  d.root.to_a   # => [<a/>, <b/>, <c/>]

==== Task: Insert Next Sibling

Use method {Child#next_sibling=}[../../../../REXML/Parent.html#method-i-next-sibling-3D]
to insert a previous sibling:

  xml_string = '<root><a/><c/></root>'
  d = REXML::Document.new(xml_string)
  d.root.to_a   # => [<a/>, <c/>]
  a = d.root[0] # => <a/>
  b = REXML::Element.new('b')
  a.next_sibling = b
  d.root.to_a   # => [<a/>, <b/>, <c/>]

=== Removal or Replacement

==== Task: Remove Child from Parent

Use method {Child#remove}[../../../../REXML/Parent.html#method-i-remove]
to remove a child from its parent; returns the removed child:

  xml_string = '<root><a/><b/><c/></root>'
  d = REXML::Document.new(xml_string)
  d.root.to_a   # => [<a/>, <b/>, <c/>]
  b = d.root[1] # => <b/>
  b.remove      # => <b/>
  d.root.to_a   # => [<a/>, <c/>]

==== Task: Replace Child

Use method {Child#replace_with}[../../../../REXML/Parent.html#method-i-replace]
to replace a child;
returns the replaced child:

  xml_string = '<root><a/><b/><c/></root>'
  d = REXML::Document.new(xml_string)
  d.root.to_a       # => [<a/>, <b/>, <c/>]
  b = d.root[1]     # => <b/>
  d = REXML::Element.new('d')
  b.replace_with(d) # => <b/>
  d.root.to_a       # => [<a/>, <d/>, <c/>]

=== Document

==== Task: Get the Document

Use method {Child#document}[../../../../REXML/Parent.html#method-i-document]
to get the document for the child:

  xml_string = '<root><a/><b/><c/></root>'
  d = REXML::Document.new(xml_string)
  d.root.to_a     # => [<a/>, <b/>, <c/>]
  b = d.root[1]   # => <b/>
  b.document == d # => true
  REXML::Child.new.document # => nil