Java JDOM Element getAttributes() Method

The Java JDOM getAttributes() method of Element class retrieves all the attributes of an XML element as a list of Attribute objects. This method returns an empty list if there are no attributes.

The Java JDOM Element getAttributes() method returns a live list and hence any changes made to these attribute objects will affect the original attributes. So, it is advisable to use hasAttributes() or getAttributesSize() to know the basic information about the attributes of an element.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of the Java JDOM Element getAttributes() method −

Element.getAttributes();

Parameters

The Java getAttributes() method doesn't accept any parameters.

Return Value

The Java getAttributes() method returns the list of Attribute objects of an XML element.

Example 1

Here is the department.xml file that has two attributes.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <department id="101" code="CS">
      <name>Computer Science</name>
      <staffCount>20</staffCount>
   </department>

The following Java program uses the Java JDOM Element getAttributes() method to get the list of attributes from the department element.

import java.io.File;
import java.util.List;
import org.jdom2.Attribute;
import org.jdom2.Document;
import org.jdom2.Element;
import org.jdom2.input.SAXBuilder;

public class GetAttributes {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      try {	
    	 //Read the document and get the root
    	 SAXBuilder saxBuilder = new SAXBuilder();
    	 File inputFile = new File("department.xml");
    	 Document doc = saxBuilder.build(inputFile);
	     Element root = doc.getRootElement();
	     //Get attributes
	     List<Attribute> attrList = root.getAttributes();
	     System.out.println(attrList);       
      } catch (Exception e) {
    	 e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

The list of attributes are displayed on the output screen.

[[Attribute: id="101"], [Attribute: code="CS"]]

Example 2

The getAttributes() method returns an empty list if there are no attributes for the XML element.

import java.util.List;
import org.jdom2.Attribute;
import org.jdom2.Document;
import org.jdom2.Element;

public class GetAttributes {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      try {	
    	 //Create Document and set root
	     Document doc = new Document();
	     Element root = new Element("root");
	     doc.setRootElement(root);
	     //Get attributes
	     List<Attribute> attrList = root.getAttributes();
	     System.out.println(attrList);	          
      } catch (Exception e) {
    	 e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }
}

An empty list is displayed on the output screen.

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