From: Nat Pryce <nat.pryce@...13media.com>
Date: 2002-04-05T20:38:53+09:00
Subject: A Quick and Dirty Solution (was Re: REXML queries)

On Fri, Apr 05, 2002 at 01:08:02AM +0900, Nat Pryce wrote:
> ...is there an easy way to copy an entire tree of nodes?  I'd like to
> build a new document by copying subtrees from another document.  The clone
> method copies the name of the element, but *not* the attributes or
children.

Here's a quick-and-dirty solution.  Inelegant, but it works.  Just add this
code to
your program, and the Element class has a deep_clone method that copies all
children and attributes.

require 'rexml/document'

module REXML
    class Element
        def deep_clone()
            Element.new( SourceFactory.create_from( self.to_s ) )
        end
    end
end

________________________________
Dr. Nathaniel Pryce
B13media Ltd.
40-41 Whiskin St, London, EC1R 0BP, UK
http://www.b13media.com