DOM - Node Object Method - cloneNode

The method cloneNode is used to create a duplicate node, when overridden in a derived class. It returns the duplicated node.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for the usage of the cloneNode method.

nodeObject.cloneNode(boolean deep)

S.No.	Parameter & Description
1	deep If true, recursively clones the subtree under the specified node; if false, clone only the node itself (and its attributes, if it is an Element).

This method returns duplicate Node.

Example

node.xml contents are as below −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<Company>
   <Employee category = "Technical">
      <FirstName>Tanmay</FirstName>
      <LastName>Patil</LastName>
      <ContactNo>1234567890</ContactNo>
      <Email>tanmaypatil@xyz.com</Email>
   </Employee>
   
   <Employee category = "Non-Technical">
      <FirstName>Taniya</FirstName>
      <LastName>Mishra</LastName>
      <ContactNo>1234667898</ContactNo>
      <Email>taniyamishra@xyz.com</Email>
   </Employee>
   
   <Employee category = "Management">
      <FirstName>Tanisha</FirstName>
      <LastName>Sharma</LastName>
      <ContactNo>1234562350</ContactNo>
      <Email>tanishasharma@xyz.com</Email>
   </Employee>
</Company>

Following example demonstrates the usage of the cloneNode method −

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <head>
      <script>
         function loadXMLDoc(filename) {
            if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
               xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
            } else // code for IE5 and IE6 {
               xhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
            }
            xhttp.open("GET",filename,false);
            xhttp.send();
            return xhttp.responseXML;
         }
      </script>
   </head>
   <body>
      <script>
         xmlDoc = loadXMLDoc("/dom/node.xml");

         x = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName('Employee')[0];
         clone_node = x.cloneNode(true);
         xmlDoc.documentElement.appendChild(clone_node);
         document.write("Following list has cloned node: ");
         document.write("<br>");
         y = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("LastName");
         for (i = 0; i < y.length; i ++)
         {
            document.write(y[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue);
            document.write("<br>");
         }
      </script>
   </body>
</html>

Execution

Save this file as nodemethod_clonenode.htm on the server path (this file and node.xml should be on the same path in your server). We will get the output as shown below −

Following list has cloned node :
Patil
Mishra
Sharma
Patil

You will notice that the first LastName Patil is cloned.

dom_node_object.htm