Module java.xml
Package org.xml.sax

Interface AttributeList

All Known Implementing Classes:
AttributeListImpl

@Deprecated(since="1.5") public interface AttributeList
Deprecated.
This interface has been replaced by the SAX2 Attributes interface, which includes Namespace support.
Interface for an element's attribute specifications.

This is the original SAX1 interface for reporting an element's attributes. Unlike the new Attributes interface, it does not support Namespace-related information.

When an attribute list is supplied as part of a startElement event, the list will return valid results only during the scope of the event; once the event handler returns control to the parser, the attribute list is invalid. To save a persistent copy of the attribute list, use the SAX1 AttributeListImpl helper class.

An attribute list includes only attributes that have been specified or defaulted: #IMPLIED attributes will not be included.

There are two ways for the SAX application to obtain information from the AttributeList. First, it can iterate through the entire list:


 public void startElement (String name, AttributeList atts) {
   for (int i = 0; i < atts.getLength(); i++) {
     String name = atts.getName(i);
     String type = atts.getType(i);
     String value = atts.getValue(i);
     [...]
   }
 }
 

(Note that the result of getLength() will be zero if there are no attributes.)

As an alternative, the application can request the value or type of specific attributes:

 public void startElement (String name, AttributeList atts) {
   String identifier = atts.getValue("id");
   String label = atts.getValue("label");
   [...]
 }
 

Since:
1.4, SAX 1.0
See Also: