From: Markus Jais <info@...>
Date: 2001-12-07T08:14:08+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:27765] REXML: question on whitespace

hello
I have a question on whitespace in documents generated with REXML

I have the following code:
----
require "rexml/document"
include REXML

def make_language(name, creator, is_oop)
        el = Element.new("language")
        name_el = Element.new("name")
        name_el.text = name
        creator_el = Element.new("creator")
        creator_el.text = creator
        el << name_el << creator_el 
        el.add_attribute( Attribute.new("oop", is_oop))
        return el
end

doc = Document.new("<programming_languages/>")
rt = doc.root

lang1 = make_language("Ruby", "Yukihiro Matsumoto", "yes")
lang2 = make_language("Python", "Guido van Rossum", "yes")
rt << lang1
rt << lang2
doc.write(File.new("lang.xml", "w"))
---

this produces the following output:

<programming_languages>
  <language oop='yes'>
    <name>
      Ruby
    </name>
    <creator>
      Yukihiro Matsumoto
    </creator>
  </language>
  <language oop='yes'>
    <name>
      Python
    </name>
    <creator>
      Guido van Rossum
    </creator>
  </language>
</programming_languages>/

I want the output to be formated this way!
now I have this code:
---
require "rexml/document"
include REXML
doc = Document.new(File.new("lang.xml"))
 
doc.elements.each("//language/*") { |element|
        if element.name == "name"
                print element.text.strip, " : "
        elsif element.name == "creator"
                print element.text.strip, "\n"
        end
}

---
element.text returns the text of the element including '\n'
is there a way to ignore all whitespace, so that I do not
have to call "strip"?????

in the methods element#text, no whitespace is removed according
to the sources.

any hints are welcome!

markus