The PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA class derives from PBDOM_OBJECT and represents character-based content (not markup) within an XML document. The PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA class extends PBDOM_OBJECT with methods specifically designed for manipulating character data.
In addition to the methods inherited from PBDOM_OBJECT, the PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA class has the following methods:
Append to append a text string or the text data of a PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA object to the text in the current object
SetText to set the text content of the PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA object
The PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA class is the parent class of three other PBDOM classes:
PBDOM_TEXT
PBDOM_CDATA
PBDOM_COMMENT
The PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA class, like its parent class PBDOM_OBJECT, is a "virtual" class (similar to a virtual C++ class) in that it is not expected to be directly instantiated and used. For example, creating a PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA with the CREATE statement is legal in PowerScript, but operating on it directly by calling its SetText method is not. The last line in this code raises an exception:
PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA pbdom_chrdata
pbdom_chrdata = CREATE PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA
pbdom_chrdata.SetText("character string") //exception!
In this example, pbdom_chrdata is declared as a PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA but is instantiated as a PBDOM_TEXT. Calling SetText on pbdom_chrdata is equivalent to calling the PBDOM_TEXT SetText method:
PBDOM_CHARACTERDATA pbdom_chrdata
pbdom_chrdata = CREATE PBDOM_TEXT
pbdom_chrdata.SetText("character string")
