cloneNode (XMLNode.cloneNode method) -- Flash CS3

Constructs and returns a new XML node of the same type, name, value, and attributes as the specified XML object. If deep is set to true, all child nodes are recursively cloned, resulting in an exact copy of the original object's document tree.

The clone of the node that is returned is no longer associated with the tree of the cloned item. Consequently, nextSibling, parentNode, and previousSibling all have a value of null. If the deep parameter is set to false, or the my_xml node has no child nodes, firstChild and lastChild are also null.

Parameters

deep:Boolean - A Boolean value; if set to true, the children of the specified XML object will be recursively cloned.

Returns

Example

The following example shows how to use the XML.cloneNode() method to create a copy of a node:

// create a new XML document
var doc:XML = new XML();

// create a root node
var rootNode:XMLNode = doc.createElement("rootNode");

// create three child nodes
var oldest:XMLNode = doc.createElement("oldest");
var middle:XMLNode = doc.createElement("middle");
var youngest:XMLNode = doc.createElement("youngest");

// add the rootNode as the root of the XML document tree
doc.appendChild(rootNode);

// add each of the child nodes as children of rootNode
rootNode.appendChild(oldest);
rootNode.appendChild(middle);
rootNode.appendChild(youngest);

// create a copy of the middle node using cloneNode()
var middle2:XMLNode = middle.cloneNode(false);

// insert the clone node into rootNode between the middle and youngest nodes
rootNode.insertBefore(middle2, youngest);
trace(rootNode);
// output (with line breaks added): 
// <rootNode>
// <oldest />
// <middle />
// <middle />
// <youngest />
// </rootNode>

// create a copy of rootNode using cloneNode() to demonstrate a deep copy
var rootClone:XMLNode = rootNode.cloneNode(true);

// insert the clone, which contains all child nodes, to rootNode
rootNode.appendChild(rootClone);
trace(rootNode); 
// output (with line breaks added): 
// <rootNode>
// <oldest />
// <middle />
// <middle />
// <youngest />
// <rootNode>
// <oldest />
// <middle />
// <middle />
// <youngest />
// </rootNode>
// </rootNode>