Replaces the specified old child node with the supplied new child node in the set of children of this node, and returns the old child node.
Syntax
objXMLDOMNode = oXMLDOMNode.replaceChild(newChild, oldChild)
Parameters
newChild
Object. Address of the new child that is to replace the old child. If NULL, oldChild is removed without a replacement.
oldChild
Object. Address of the old child that is to be replaced by the new child.
Returns
Object. Returns the old child that is replaced.
Remarks
This operation depends on the value of the nodeType property:
NODE_ATTRIBUTE
This operation depends on the value of the newChild parameter.
| NODE_ATTRIBUTE, NODE_CDATA_SECTION, NODE_COMMENT, NODE_DOCUMENT, NODE_DOCUMENT_TYPE, NODE_ELEMENT, NODE_ENTITY, NODE_NOTATION, NODE_PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION | Returns an error. These node types cannot be children of an attribute. |
| NODE_DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT | Replaces oldChild with the children of the document fragment in newChild and returns oldChild. |
| NODE_ENTITY_REFERENCE, NODE_TEXT | Replaces the specified oldChild with the supplied newChild and returns oldChild. |
| NODE_CDATA_SECTION, NODE_COMMENT, NODE_ENTITY, NODE_NOTATION, NODE_PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION, NODE_TEXT | Returns an error. These node types either cannot have children or their children are read-only. |
NODE_DOCUMENT
This operation depends on the value of the newChild parameter:
| NODE_ATTRIBUTE, NODE_CDATA_SECTION, NODE_DOCUMENT, NODE_ENTITY, NODE_ENTITY_REFERENCE, NODE_NOTATION, NODE_TEXT | Returns an error. These nodes are not valid as children of a document node. |
| NODE_COMMENT, NODE_PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION | Replaces the specified oldChild with the supplied newChild and returns oldChild. |
| NODE_DOCUMENT_TYPE, NODE_ELEMENT | Replaces oldChild with newChild and returns oldChild. Note, however, that by definition an XML document (the document node) can have only a single child. Therefore, an error is returned if the document node already has a child. |
| NODE_DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT | Replaces the specified oldChild with the children of the document fragment (newChild) and returns oldChild. Note that the insert operations are subject to the rules for child nodes and can fail if the document fragment children represent node types that cannot be inserted. |
| NODE_DOCUMENT_TYPE | Returns an error. The document type is read-only. |
NODE_DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT
This operation depends on the value of the newChild parameter:
| NODE_ATTRIBUTE, NODE_DOCUMENT, NODE_DOCUMENT_TYPE | Returns an error. These nodes types are not valid as children of a document fragment. |
| NODE_CDATA_SECTION, NODE_COMMENT, NODE_ELEMENT, NODE_ENTITY_REFERENCE, NODE_PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION, NODE_TEXT | Replaces the specified oldChild with the supplied newChild and returns oldChild. |
| NODE_DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT | Replaces the specified oldChild with the children of the document fragment (newChild) and returns oldChild. Note that the insert operations are subject to the rules for child nodes and can fail if the document fragment children represent node types that cannot be inserted. |
| NODE_ENTITY, NODE_NOTATION | Returns an error. Entities and notations are read-only and cannot be inserted into a document. |
NODE_ELEMENT
This operation depends on the value of the newChild parameter:
| NODE_CDATA_SECTION, NODE_COMMENT, NODE_ELEMENT, NODE_ENTITY_REFERENCE, NODE_TEXT, NODE_PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION | Replaces the specified oldChild with newChild and returns oldChild. |
| NODE_ATTRIBUTE, NODE_DOCUMENT, NODE_DOCUMENT_TYPE, NODE_ENTITY, NODE_NOTATION | Returns an error. These node types cannot be children of an element node. |
| NODE_DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT | Replaces the specified oldChild with the children of the document fragment (newChild) and returns oldChild. Note that the insert operations are subject to the rules for child nodes and can fail if the document fragment children represent node types that cannot be inserted. |
| NODE_ENTITY_REFERENCE | Returns an error. Although the child nodes of an entity reference are the expanded entity, the children cannot be modified. |
Example
The following example creates a new XMLDOMNode object, newElem, and replaces the specified child node with newElem :
Dim xmlDoc
Dim root
Dim newElem
Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("microsoft.xmldom")
xmlDoc.async = False
xmlDoc.load("c:\books.xml")
Set root = xmlDoc.documentElement
Set newElem = xmlDoc.createElement("PAGES")
root.childNodes.item(1).replaceChild newElem, root.childNodes.item(1).childNodes.item(0)
MsgBox root.childNodes.item(1).xml
Applies To
XMLDOMAttribute, XMLDOMCDATASection, XMLDOMCharacterData, XMLDOMComment, XMLDOMDocument, XMLDOMDocumentFragment, XMLDOMDocumentType, XMLDOMElement, XMLDOMEntity, XMLDOMEntityReference, XMLDOMNode, XMLDOMNotation, XMLDOMProcessingInstruction, XMLDOMText, XTLRuntime