CharacterData interface

The CharacterData interface extends Node with a set of attributes and methods for accessing character data in the DOM. For clarity this set is defined here rather than on each object that uses these attributes and methods. No DOM objects correspond directly to CharacterData, though Text and others do inherit the interface from it. All offsets in this interface start from 0.

As explained in the DOMString interface, text strings in the DOM are represented in UTF-16, i.e. as a sequence of 16-bit units. In the following, the term 16-bit units is used whenever necessary to indicate that indexing on CharacterData is done in 16-bit units.

The character data of the node that implements this interface. The DOM implementation may not put arbitrary limits on the amount of data that may be stored in a CharacterData node. However, implementation limits may mean that the entirety of a node's data may not fit into a single DOMString. In such cases, the user may call substringData to retrieve the data in appropriately sized pieces.

data
Access	read-write
Returns	String
Get throws	DOMException DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return more characters than fit in a DOMString variable on the implementation platform.
Set throws	DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly.

The number of 16-bit units that are available through data and the substringData method below. This may have the value zero, i.e., CharacterData nodes may be empty.

length
Access	read-only
Returns	unsigned long

Append the string to the end of the character data of the node. Upon success, data provides access to the concatenation of data and the DOMString specified.

appendDataarg
Parameters	Stringarg The DOMString to append.
Returns	void
Throws	DOMException NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

deleteDataoffsetcount
Parameters	unsigned longoffset The offset from which to start removing. unsigned longcount The number of 16-bit units to delete. If the sum of offset and count exceeds length then all 16-bit units from offset to the end of the data are deleted.
Returns	void
Throws	DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data, or if the specified count is negative. NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

insertDataoffsetarg
Parameters	unsigned longoffset The character offset at which to insert. Stringarg The DOMString to insert.
Returns	void
Throws	DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data. NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

replaceDataoffsetcountarg
Parameters	unsigned longoffset The offset from which to start replacing. unsigned longcount The number of 16-bit units to replace. If the sum of offset and count exceeds length, then all 16-bit units to the end of the data are replaced; (i.e., the effect is the same as a remove method call with the same range, followed by an append method invocation). Stringarg The DOMString with which the range must be replaced.
Returns	void
Throws	DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data, or if the specified count is negative. NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.

substringDataoffsetcount
Parameters	unsigned longoffset Start offset of substring to extract. unsigned longcount The number of 16-bit units to extract.
Returns	String. The specified substring. If the sum of offset and count exceeds the length, then all 16-bit units to the end of the data are returned.
Throws	DOMException INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified offset is negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in data, or if the specified count is negative. DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified range of text does not fit into a DOMString.