Text (Java Platform SE 8 )
Keywords: org.w3c.dom.Text interface
Date: 2026-04-22

compact2, compact3
org.w3c.dom

## Interface Text

- All Superinterfaces:
    CharacterData, Node
  All Known Subinterfaces:
    CDATASection, Text

      public interface Text
      extends CharacterData

  The `Text` interface inherits from `CharacterData` and represents the textual content (termed character data in XML) of an `Element` or `Attr`. If there is no markup inside an element's content, the text is contained in a single object implementing the `Text` interface that is the only child of the element. If there is markup, it is parsed into the information items (elements, comments, etc.) and `Text` nodes that form the list of children of the element.

  When a document is first made available via the DOM, there is only one `Text` node for each block of text. Users may create adjacent `Text` nodes that represent the contents of a given element without any intervening markup, but should be aware that there is no way to represent the separations between these nodes in XML or HTML, so they will not (in general) persist between DOM editing sessions. The `Node.normalize()` method merges any such adjacent `Text` objects into a single node for each block of text.

  No lexical check is done on the content of a `Text` node and, depending on its position in the document, some characters must be escaped during serialization using character references; e.g. the characters "<&" if the textual content is part of an element or of an attribute, the character sequence "]]>" when part of an element, the quotation mark character " or the apostrophe character ' when part of an attribute.

  See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification.

- - ### Field Summary

    - ### Fields inherited from interface org.w3c.dom.Node

      `ATTRIBUTE_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY, DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS, DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED, DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING, DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC, DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING, DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, ELEMENT_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE, TEXT_NODE`

  - ### Method Summary

    All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
    Modifier and Type | Method and Description
    --- | ---
    `String` | `getWholeText()` Returns all text of `Text` nodes logically-adjacent text nodes to this node, concatenated in document order.
    `boolean` | `isElementContentWhitespace()` Returns whether this text node contains element content whitespace, often abusively called "ignorable whitespace".
    `Text` | `replaceWholeText(String content)` Replaces the text of the current node and all logically-adjacent text nodes with the specified text.
    `Text` | `splitText(int offset)` Breaks this node into two nodes at the specified `offset`, keeping both in the tree as siblings.

    - ### Methods inherited from interface org.w3c.dom.CharacterData

      `appendData, deleteData, getData, getLength, insertData, replaceData, setData, substringData`

    - ### Methods inherited from interface org.w3c.dom.Node

      `appendChild, cloneNode, compareDocumentPosition, getAttributes, getBaseURI, getChildNodes, getFeature, getFirstChild, getLastChild, getLocalName, getNamespaceURI, getNextSibling, getNodeName, getNodeType, getNodeValue, getOwnerDocument, getParentNode, getPrefix, getPreviousSibling, getTextContent, getUserData, hasAttributes, hasChildNodes, insertBefore, isDefaultNamespace, isEqualNode, isSameNode, isSupported, lookupNamespaceURI, lookupPrefix, normalize, removeChild, replaceChild, setNodeValue, setPrefix, setTextContent, setUserData`

- - ### Method Detail

    - #### splitText

          Text splitText(int offset)
                  throws DOMException

      Breaks this node into two nodes at the specified `offset`, keeping both in the tree as siblings. After being split, this node will contain all the content up to the `offset` point. A new node of the same type, which contains all the content at and after the `offset` point, is returned. If the original node had a parent node, the new node is inserted as the next sibling of the original node. When the `offset` is equal to the length of this node, the new node has no data.
      Parameters:
        `offset` - The 16-bit unit offset at which to split, starting from `0`.
      Returns:
        The new node, of the same type as this node.
      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.

    - #### isElementContentWhitespace

          boolean isElementContentWhitespace()

      Returns whether this text node contains element content whitespace, often abusively called "ignorable whitespace". The text node is determined to contain whitespace in element content during the load of the document or if validation occurs while using `Document.normalizeDocument()`.
      Since:
        DOM Level 3

    - #### getWholeText

          String getWholeText()

      Returns all text of `Text` nodes logically-adjacent text nodes to this node, concatenated in document order.
      For instance, in the example below `wholeText` on the `Text` node that contains "bar" returns "barfoo", while on the `Text` node that contains "foo" it returns "barfoo".

                               +-----+
                               | <p> |
                               +-----+
                                 /\
                                /  \
                         /-----\    +-------+
                         | bar |    | &ent; |
                         \-----/    +-------+
                                        |
                                        |
                                     /-----\
                                     | foo |
                                     \-----/

      Figure: barTextNode.wholeText value is "barfoo"
      Since:
        DOM Level 3

    - #### replaceWholeText

          Text replaceWholeText(String content)
                         throws DOMException

      Replaces the text of the current node and all logically-adjacent text nodes with the specified text. All logically-adjacent text nodes are removed including the current node unless it was the recipient of the replacement text.

      This method returns the node which received the replacement text. The returned node is:

      - `null`, when the replacement text is the empty string;
      - the current node, except when the current node is read-only;
      - a new `Text` node of the same type ( `Text` or `CDATASection`) as the current node inserted at the location of the replacement.

      For instance, in the above example calling `replaceWholeText` on the `Text` node that contains "bar" with "yo" in argument results in the following:

                               +-----+
                               | <p> |
                               +-----+
                                  |
                                  |
                               /-----\
                               | yo  |
                               \-----/

      Figure: barTextNode.replaceWholeText("yo") modifies the textual content of barTextNode with "yo"

      Where the nodes to be removed are read-only descendants of an `EntityReference`, the `EntityReference` must be removed instead of the read-only nodes. If any `EntityReference` to be removed has descendants that are not `EntityReference`, `Text`, or `CDATASection` nodes, the `replaceWholeText` method must fail before performing any modification of the document, raising a `DOMException` with the code `NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR`.

      For instance, in the example below calling `replaceWholeText` on the `Text` node that contains "bar" fails, because the `EntityReference` node "ent" contains an `Element` node which cannot be removed.

      Parameters:
        `content` - The content of the replacing `Text` node.
      Returns:
        The `Text` node created with the specified content.
      Throws:
        `DOMException` - NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if one of the `Text` nodes being replaced is readonly.
      Since:
        DOM Level 3

Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.
Copyright © 1993, 2026, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.