can a textNode have a childNode which is an elementNode?

Question

Say,is the following possible:

textNode.appendChild(elementNode);

elementNode refers to those with nodeType set to 1

textNode refers to those with nodeType set to 2

It's not easy to produce.

The reason I ask this is that I find a function that adds a cite link to the end of a quotation:

function displayCitations() {
  var quotes = document.getElementsByTagName("blockquote");
  for (var i=0; i<quotes.length; i++) {
  if (!quotes[i].getAttribute("cite")) continue;
  var url = quotes[i].getAttribute("cite");
  var quoteChildren = quotes[i].getElementsByTagName('*');
  if (quoteChildren.length < 1) continue;
  var elem = quoteChildren[quoteChildren.length - 1];
  var link = document.createElement("a");
  var link_text = document.createTextNode("source");
  link.appendChild(link_text);
  link.setAttribute("href",url);
  var superscript = document.createElement("sup");
  superscript.appendChild(link);
  elem.appendChild(superscript);
  }
}

see the last line "elem.appendChild(superscript);" where elem can be a textNode?

I think the reason it's difficult to prove it because it's hard to get access to a specified textNode. Have anyone any way to achieve that?

Answer 1

No, text nodes are always leafs. Instead you must add new nodes to the text node's parent - making them siblings of the text node.

EDIT

Here's an example where I attempt to add a child to a text node.

<div id="test">my only child is this text node</div>

<script type="text/javascript">

var div = document.getElementById( 'test' );
var textNode = div.childNodes[0];
var superscript = document.createElement("sup");
superscript.text = 'test';

textNode.appendChild( superscript );

</script>

Firefox gives the error

uncaught exception: Node cannot be inserted at the specified point in the hierarchy (NS_ERROR_DOM_HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR)

Answer 2

I don't think so; I'm fairly certain that something like

<div>this is some <a href="...">text</a> with an element inside it.</div>

ends up being:

<div>
    <textnode/>
    <a>
        <textnode/>
    </a>
    <textnode/>
</div>

I don't believe textNodes can have children.

If I had to guess, I'd think that the result of adding a child node to a text node would be to add the element to the text node's parent instead, but I've not tested that at all.