Method: REXML::Attributes#delete

Defined in:
lib/rexml/element.rb

#delete(attribute) ⇒ Object

:call-seq:

delete(name) -> element
delete(attribute) -> element

Removes a specified attribute if it exists; returns the attributes’ element.

When string argument name is given, removes the attribute of that name if it exists:

xml_string = "  <root xmlns:foo=\"http://foo\" xmlns:bar=\"http://bar\">\n     <ele foo:att='1' bar:att='2' att='&lt;'/>\n  </root>\n"
d = REXML::Document.new(xml_string)
ele = d.root.elements['//ele'] # => <a foo:att='1' bar:att='2' att='&lt;'/>
attrs = ele.attributes
attrs.delete('foo:att') # => <ele bar:att='2' att='&lt;'/>
attrs.delete('foo:att') # => <ele bar:att='2' att='&lt;'/>

When attribute argument attribute is given, removes that attribute if it exists:

attr = REXML::Attribute.new('bar:att', '2')
attrs.delete(attr) # => <ele att='&lt;'/> # => <ele att='&lt;'/>
attrs.delete(attr) # => <ele att='&lt;'/> # => <ele/>



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# File 'lib/rexml/element.rb', line 2471

def delete( attribute )
  name = nil
  prefix = nil
  if attribute.kind_of? Attribute
    name = attribute.name
    prefix = attribute.prefix
  else
    attribute =~ Namespace::NAMESPLIT
    prefix, name = $1, $2
    prefix = '' unless prefix
  end
  old = fetch(name, nil)
  if old.kind_of? Hash # the supplied attribute is one of many
    old.delete(prefix)
    if old.size == 1
      repl = nil
      old.each_value{|v| repl = v}
      store name, repl
    end
  elsif old # the supplied attribute is a top-level one
    super(name)
  end
  @element
end