Rexml - how to get element name

Ruby
1

If I have an instance of REXML::Element, is there a convenient way to
get it’s element name? I would have expected a get_name method for
Element or something like that, but according to the stdlib
documentation at RDoc Documentation there is no such thing.

I found two ways that I do not like very much:

  1. get the xpath to the element via Element.xpath and then extract the
    actual name:

    path = el.xpath
    name = path.sub(/^/(.+/)(\w)([\d*])?/ ,‘\2’)

I don’t like this method since it feels wasteful.

  1. Use instance_eval to get the value of Element::expanded_name:

irb(main):013:0> el.instance_eval(‘@expanded_name’)
=> “import”

I don’t like that either (I know I’m picky) since this means to use part
of the rexml implementation that is not part of the publicly documented
interface.

Is there an other way that I would like?

Thanks in advance for all advise and insights.

regards
Jerry

2

On 3/26/06, Gerald P. [email protected] wrote:

If I have an instance of REXML::Element, is there a convenient way to
get it’s element name?

It’s in the included REXML::Namespace module:

http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/rexml/rdoc/classes/REXML/Namespace.html

element.name

Cheers,
/Nick

3

On Mar 26, 2006, at 9:23 PM, Gerald P. wrote:

If I have an instance of REXML::Element, is there a convenient way
to get it’s element name? I would have expected a get_name method
for Element or something like that, but according to the stdlib
documentation at RDoc Documentation there is no such
thing.

ruby style avoids extraneous get prefixes to the front of method
names. It’s just name, not get_name

4

On Mar 27, 2006, at 8:03 AM, Gerald P. wrote:

Shouldn’t that show up in the the docsas an attribute of Element?

It’s a downside of rdoc. Up at the top[1] you see that the Namespace
module is mixed in, but it’s methods do not show up. ri actually
shows the mixed in methods – I don’t know why the HTML docs can’t.

[1] http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/rexml/rdoc/classes/REXML/
Element.html

– Daniel

5

Logan C. wrote:

ruby style avoids extraneous get prefixes to the front of method names.
It’s just name, not get_name

Logan,

thanks to you and Nick for your replies.

Shouldn’t that show up in the the docsas an attribute of Element?

regards
Jerry

6

“Nick S.” [email protected] writes:

element.name
How can one figure that out in pure Ruby? It’s rather easy, once you
know the trick.

irb(main):002:0> require ‘rexml/document’
=> true
irb(main):003:0> REXML::Element.instance_method(:name)
=> #<UnboundMethod: REXML::Element(REXML::Namespace)#name>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
irb(main):004:0> REXML::Element.instance_method(:to_s)
=> #<UnboundMethod: REXML::Element(REXML::Node)#to_s>
^^^^^^^^^^^

So, if you know you can call a method foo on objects of class Bar,
but just can’t find it anywere, inspect Bar.instance_method :foo and
you’ll see the defining module.