XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Name

setAttributeNode: newAttr

Synopsis

Sets or replaces the attribute in the Node interface’s attributes collection with the given Attr object. The attribute name is retrieved from the name attribute of the new attribute object. If an Attr object with the given name already exists in the attributes collection, this method returns a reference to the old Attr object. Otherwise, it returns null.

Argument

newAttr: Attr

The new Attr object to set.

Exceptions

WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR

Raised if the newAttr node was created in a document different than the parent node.

NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR

Raised if the new parent node is read-only.

INUSE_ATTRIBUTE_ERR

Raised if another Element already uses the new Attr node. Each element must have a distinct Attr object.

Java binding

public Attr setAttributeNode(Attr newAttr) throws DOMException;

Java example

// Make sure you have an id attribute to work with
Attr attr;
     
if ((attr = elem.getAttributeNode("id")) =  = null) {
    // add a default, unique id
    attr = doc.createAttribute("id");
     
    elem.setAttributeNode(attr);
     
    // continue processing
}