src/org/w3c/dom/html/HTMLCollection.java

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 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
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 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
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 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
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 * accompanied this code).
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/*
 * This file is available under and governed by the GNU General Public
 * License version 2 only, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 * However, the following notice accompanied the original version of this
 * file and, per its terms, should not be removed:
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2000 World Wide Web Consortium,
 * (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institut National de
 * Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio University). All
 * Rights Reserved. This program is distributed under the W3C's Software
 * Intellectual Property License. This program is distributed in the
 * hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
 * the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
 * PURPOSE. See W3C License http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ for more
 * details.
 */

package org.w3c.dom.html;

import org.w3c.dom.Node;

/**
 *  An <code>HTMLCollection</code> is a list of nodes. An individual node may
 * be accessed by either ordinal index or the node's<code>name</code> or
 * <code>id</code> attributes.  Note: Collections in the HTML DOM are assumed
 * to be  live meaning that they are automatically updated when the
 * underlying document is changed.
 * <p>See also the <a href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-DOM-Level-2-20000510'>Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Specification</a>.
 */
public interface HTMLCollection {
    /**
     *  This attribute specifies the length or  size of the list.
     */
    public int getLength();

    /**
     *  This method retrieves a node specified by ordinal index. Nodes are
     * numbered in tree order (depth-first traversal order).
     * @param index  The index of the node to be fetched. The index origin is
     *   0.
     * @return  The <code>Node</code> at the corresponding position upon
     *   success. A value of <code>null</code> is returned if the index is
     *   out of range.
     */
    public Node item(int index);

    /**
     *  This method retrieves a <code>Node</code> using a name. It first
     * searches for a <code>Node</code> with a matching <code>id</code>
     * attribute. If it doesn't find one, it then searches for a
     * <code>Node</code> with a matching <code>name</code> attribute, but
     * only on those elements that are allowed a name attribute.
     * @param name  The name of the <code>Node</code> to be fetched.
     * @return  The <code>Node</code> with a <code>name</code> or
     *   <code>id</code> attribute whose value corresponds to the specified
     *   string. Upon failure (e.g., no node with this name exists), returns
     *   <code>null</code> .
     */
    public Node namedItem(String name);

}