R: Create a copy of an internal XML document or node

xmlClone {XML} | R Documentation

## Create a copy of an internal XML document or node

### Description

These methods allow the caller to create a copy of an XML internal node. This is useful, for example, if we want to use the node or document in an additional context, e.g. put the node into another document while leaving it in the existing document. Similarly, if we want to remove nodes to simplify processing, we probably want to copy it so that the changes are not reflected in the original document.

At present, the newly created object is not garbage collected.

### Usage

    xmlClone(node, recursive = TRUE, addFinalizer = FALSE, ...)

### Arguments

`node` | the object to be cloned
`recursive` | a logical value indicating whether the entire object and all its descendants should be duplicated/cloned (`TRUE`) or just the top-level object (`FALSE`)
`addFinalizer` | typically a logical value indicating whether to bring this new object under R's regular garbage collection. This can also be a reference to a C routine which is to be used as the finalizer. See `getNativeSymbolInfo`.
`...` | additional parameters for methods

### Value

A new R object representing the object.

### Author(s)

Duncan Temple Lang

### References

libxml2

### See Also

`xmlParse` `newXMLNode` `newXMLDoc`

### Examples

    doc =
    xmlParse(paste0('<doc><author id="dtl"><firstname>Duncan</firstname>',
                   '<surname>Temple Lang</surname></author></doc>'))

      au = xmlRoot(doc)[[1]]
         # make a copy
      other = xmlClone(au)
         # change it slightly
      xmlAttrs(other) = c(id = "dtl2")
         # add it to the children
      addChildren(xmlRoot(doc), other)

[Package XML version 3.99-0.3 Index]