Method: REXML::Element#delete_element

Defined in:

lib/rexml/element.rb

#delete_element(element) ⇒ Object

:call-seq:

delete_element(index) -> removed_element or nil
delete_element(element) -> removed_element or nil
delete_element(xpath) -> removed_element or nil

Deletes a child element.

When 1-based integer argument index is given, removes and returns the child element at that offset if it exists; indexing does not include text nodes; returns nil if the element does not exist:

d = REXML::Document.new '<a><b/>text<c/></a>'
a = d.root          # => <a> ... </>
a.delete_element(1) # => <b/>
a.delete_element(1) # => <c/>
a.delete_element(1) # => nil

When element argument element is given, removes and returns that child element if it exists, otherwise returns nil:

d = REXML::Document.new '<a><b/>text<c/></a>'
a = d.root          # => <a> ... </>
c = a[2]            # => <c/>
a.delete_element(c) # => <c/>
a.delete_element(c) # => nil

When xpath argument xpath is given, removes and returns the element at xpath if it exists, otherwise returns nil:

d = REXML::Document.new '<a><b/>text<c/></a>'
a = d.root              # => <a> ... </>
a.delete_element('//c') # => <c/>
a.delete_element('//c') # => nil

# File 'lib/rexml/element.rb', line 771

def delete_element element
  @elements.delete element
end