Childnodes multiple javascript XML

Question

Can't get chosen child when trying to pull out of XML - in this case it is author:

<book category="WEB">
<title lang="en">XQuery Kick Start</title>
<author>James McGovern</author>
<author>Per Bothner</author>
<author>Kurt Cagle</author>
<author>James Linn</author>
<author>Vaidyanathan Nagarajan</author>
<year>2003</year>
<price>49.99</price>
</book>

I can't get the javascript script to display my chosen author. Meaning that if I do this.

txt=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[2].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.write("<p>"+txt);

I get 'James McGovern'. But

txt=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[2].childNodes[1].nodeValue;
document.write("<p>"+txt);

Will not give me 'Per Bothner'. How can I make this possible?

Answer 1

while i'm wondering how you obtained your result, too ... the childNodes array does not only contain elements but (among others) also text nodes, namely line separators (CR/LF). therefore you'd have to iterate through the array checking the node type of each entry. a better choice is using xpath to select the interesting elements, this article should get you started.

specifically, /book/author will select exactly the, well, author nodes in document order.