Order of DOM NodeList returned by getChildNodes()

Question

The DOM method getChildNodes() returns a NodeList of the children of the current Node. Whilst a NodeList is ordered, is the list guaranteed to be in document order?

For example, given <a><b/><c/><d/></a> is a.getChildNodes() guaranteed to return a NodeList with b, c and d in that order?

The javadoc isn't clear on this.

Answer 1

In my experience, yes. The DOM spec isn't any clearer. If you're paranoid, try something like

current = node.firstChild;
while(null != current) {
    ...
    current = current.nextSibling;
}