Java appending an element to XML document

Question

I am trying to append an element to my xml document so it looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<students>
</students>

However, it ends up looking like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<students/>

This is the code I am using:

// results is the new XML document I created using DocumentBuilder.newDocument();
Element root = results.createElement("students");
results.appendChild(root);

How come it isn't looking like how I want it to?

<students></students> and <students /> are equivalent. It is an XML shorthand when the element has no children. Once you append more children into the root, it should automatically expand. — Xen
– Xen, Commented Jun 5, 2016 at 14:43

sexybee · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-05 14:52:45Z

1

Java dom is implemented based on the xml specification, and by definition: An element with no content is said to be empty : https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-starttags.

answered Jun 5, 2016 at 14:52

sexybee

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