Re: Inserting nodes

On Thursday 26 February 2026 19:48:10 (+01:00), Erik Bruchez wrote:


Yes, let's discuss.


Maybe the document/document (top left corner) case should work and replace the document.
Current rules remove all document nodes from the source list.


Steven




On Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 5:14 AM Steven Pemberton <steven.pemberton@cwi.nl <mailto:steven.pemberton@cwi.nl> > wrote:

Since this is so badly formatted on the W3C list, here attached is the HTML version


Steven

On Wednesday 25 February 2026 14:05:38 (+01:00), Steven Pemberton wrote:


The xpath data model 3.1 says (https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-datamodel-31/#Node)


"There are seven kinds of Nodes in the data model: document, element, attribute, text, namespace, processing instruction, and comment."


The possible sub-branches of each of these are:


Document:
Children: Element, Processing Instruction, Comment, Text. 
Element:
Children: Element, Processing Instruction, Comment, Text
Attributes
Namespaces
Attribute: -
Text: -
Processing instruction:  -
Comment: -
Namespace:  -


The text for <insert/> says
"If [...] there is a node type conflict between the copied node and the target location (for example, an attribute cannot be inserted as a sibling of an element), the insertion for that copied node is ignored."


So I tried to draw up a table of what happens with each type of node being inserted to a location of each type of node. There is an 8th type of node: The root element is special because it cannot have sibling elements.


Rows: destination node, Columns: Source node.
X: Not allowed
?: Needs discussion
Sibling: The node is inserted as a sibling
Insert/replace: Either insert the node, or replace the node of the same name
Concat: adjacent text nodes must be concatenated


I think it would be good to discuss every entry in this table to make sure we agree that that is what happens.



 Document Element Attribute Text NS PI Comment
Document X Replaces root element X X? X Insert? Insert?
Root element X Replaces root element Insert/replace attribute Sibling? Insert/replace Insert Insert
Element X Sibling unless parent is doc Insert/replace attribute Sibling Insert/replace Insert Insert
Attribute X X Insert/replace attribute X? X X X
Text X Sibling unless parent is doc X Concat X Sibling Sibling
NS X X X X Insert/replace X X
PI X Sibling unless parent is doc X Sibling X Sibling Sibling
Comment X Sibling unless parent is doc X Sibling X Sibling Sibling