Node

Node class

Base class for all nodes of a Word document.

To learn more, visit the Aspose.Words Document Object Model (DOM) documentation article.

public abstract class Node

Properties

Name	Description
CustomNodeId { get; set; }	Specifies custom node identifier.
virtual Document { get; }	Gets the document to which this node belongs.
virtual IsComposite { get; }	Returns `true` if this node can contain other nodes.
NextSibling { get; }	Gets the node immediately following this node.
abstract NodeType { get; }	Gets the type of this node.
ParentNode { get; }	Gets the immediate parent of this node.
PreviousSibling { get; }	Gets the node immediately preceding this node.
Range { get; }	Returns a `Range` object that represents the portion of a document that is contained in this node.

Methods

Name	Description
abstract Accept(DocumentVisitor)	Accepts a visitor.
Clone(bool)	Creates a duplicate of the node.
GetAncestor(NodeType)	Gets the first ancestor of the specified `NodeType`.
GetAncestor(Type)	Gets the first ancestor of the specified object type.
virtual GetText()	Gets the text of this node and of all its children.
NextPreOrder(Node)	Gets next node according to the pre-order tree traversal algorithm.
PreviousPreOrder(Node)	Gets the previous node according to the pre-order tree traversal algorithm.
Remove()	Removes itself from the parent.
ToString(SaveFormat)	Exports the content of the node into a string in the specified format.
ToString(SaveOptions)	Exports the content of the node into a string using the specified save options.
static NodeTypeToString(NodeType)	A utility method that converts a node type enum value into a user friendly string.

Remarks

A document is represented as a tree of nodes, similar to DOM or XmlDocument.

For more info see the Composite design pattern.

The Node class:

Defines the child node interface.
Defines the interface for visiting nodes.
Provides default cloning capability.
Implements parent node and owner document mechanisms.
Implements access to sibling nodes.

Examples

Shows how to remove all child nodes of a specific type from a composite node.

Document doc = new Document(MyDir + "Tables.docx");

Assert.AreEqual(2, doc.GetChildNodes(NodeType.Table, true).Count);

Node curNode = doc.FirstSection.Body.FirstChild;

while (curNode != null)
{
    // Save the next sibling node as a variable in case we want to move to it after deleting this node.
    Node nextNode = curNode.NextSibling;

    // A section body can contain Paragraph and Table nodes.
    // If the node is a Table, remove it from the parent.
    if (curNode.NodeType == NodeType.Table)
        curNode.Remove();

    curNode = nextNode;
}

Assert.AreEqual(0, doc.GetChildNodes(NodeType.Table, true).Count);

Shows how to clone a composite node.

Document doc = new Document();
Paragraph para = doc.FirstSection.Body.FirstParagraph;
para.AppendChild(new Run(doc, "Hello world!"));

// Below are two ways of cloning a composite node.
// 1 -  Create a clone of a node, and create a clone of each of its child nodes as well.
Node cloneWithChildren = para.Clone(true);

Assert.IsTrue(((CompositeNode)cloneWithChildren).HasChildNodes);
Assert.AreEqual("Hello world!", cloneWithChildren.GetText().Trim());

// 2 -  Create a clone of a node just by itself without any children.
Node cloneWithoutChildren = para.Clone(false);

Assert.IsFalse(((CompositeNode)cloneWithoutChildren).HasChildNodes);
Assert.AreEqual(string.Empty, cloneWithoutChildren.GetText().Trim());

Shows how to traverse through a composite node’s collection of child nodes.

Document doc = new Document();

// Add two runs and one shape as child nodes to the first paragraph of this document.
Paragraph paragraph = (Paragraph)doc.GetChild(NodeType.Paragraph, 0, true);
paragraph.AppendChild(new Run(doc, "Hello world! "));

Shape shape = new Shape(doc, ShapeType.Rectangle);
shape.Width = 200;
shape.Height = 200;
// Note that the 'CustomNodeId' is not saved to an output file and exists only during the node lifetime.
shape.CustomNodeId = 100;
shape.WrapType = WrapType.Inline;
paragraph.AppendChild(shape);

paragraph.AppendChild(new Run(doc, "Hello again!"));

// Iterate through the paragraph's collection of immediate children,
// and print any runs or shapes that we find within.
NodeCollection children = paragraph.GetChildNodes(NodeType.Any, false);

Assert.AreEqual(3, paragraph.GetChildNodes(NodeType.Any, false).Count);

foreach (Node child in children)
    switch (child.NodeType)
    {
        case NodeType.Run:
            Console.WriteLine("Run contents:");
            Console.WriteLine($"\t\"{child.GetText().Trim()}\"");
            break;
        case NodeType.Shape:
            Shape childShape = (Shape)child;
            Console.WriteLine("Shape:");
            Console.WriteLine($"\t{childShape.ShapeType}, {childShape.Width}x{childShape.Height}");
            break;
    }