# Interface EntityReference

All Superinterfaces:
  `Node`

public interface EntityReference extends Node
`EntityReference` nodes may be used to represent an entity reference in the tree. Note that character references and references to predefined entities are considered to be expanded by the HTML or XML processor so that characters are represented by their Unicode equivalent rather than by an entity reference. Moreover, the XML processor may completely expand references to entities while building the `Document`, instead of providing `EntityReference` nodes. If it does provide such nodes, then for an `EntityReference` node that represents a reference to a known entity an `Entity` exists, and the subtree of the `EntityReference` node is a copy of the `Entity` node subtree. However, the latter may not be true when an entity contains an unbound namespace prefix. In such a case, because the namespace prefix resolution depends on where the entity reference is, the descendants of the `EntityReference` node may be bound to different namespace URIs. When an `EntityReference` node represents a reference to an unknown entity, the node has no children and its replacement value, when used by `Attr.value` for example, is empty.

As for `Entity` nodes, `EntityReference` nodes and all their descendants are readonly.

Note: `EntityReference` nodes may cause element content and attribute value normalization problems when, such as in XML 1.0 and XML Schema, the normalization is performed after entity reference are expanded.

See also the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification.

Since:
  1.4, DOM Level 2

- ## Field Summary

  ### Fields declared in interface Node

  `ATTRIBUTE_NODE, CDATA_SECTION_NODE, COMMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_NODE, DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY, DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS, DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED, DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING, DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC, DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING, DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE, ELEMENT_NODE, ENTITY_NODE, ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE, NOTATION_NODE, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE, TEXT_NODE`
  Modifier and Type
  Field
  Description
  `static final short`
  `ATTRIBUTE_NODE`
  The node is an `Attr`.
  `static final short`
  `CDATA_SECTION_NODE`
  The node is a `CDATASection`.
  `static final short`
  `COMMENT_NODE`
  The node is a `Comment`.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_FRAGMENT_NODE`
  The node is a `DocumentFragment`.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_NODE`
  The node is a `Document`.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINED_BY`
  The node is contained by the reference node.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_POSITION_CONTAINS`
  The node contains the reference node.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_POSITION_DISCONNECTED`
  The two nodes are disconnected.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING`
  The node follows the reference node.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_POSITION_IMPLEMENTATION_SPECIFIC`
  The determination of preceding versus following is implementation-specific.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING`
  The second node precedes the reference node.
  `static final short`
  `DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE`
  The node is a `DocumentType`.
  `static final short`
  `ELEMENT_NODE`
  The node is an `Element`.
  `static final short`
  `ENTITY_NODE`
  The node is an `Entity`.
  `static final short`
  `ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE`
  The node is an `EntityReference`.
  `static final short`
  `NOTATION_NODE`
  The node is a `Notation`.
  `static final short`
  `PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE`
  The node is a `ProcessingInstruction`.
  `static final short`
  `TEXT_NODE`
  The node is a `Text` node.

- ## Method Summary

  ### Methods declared in interface Node

  `appendChild, cloneNode, compareDocumentPosition, getAttributes, getBaseURI, getChildNodes, getFeature, getFirstChild, getLastChild, getLocalName, getNamespaceURI, getNextSibling, getNodeName, getNodeType, getNodeValue, getOwnerDocument, getParentNode, getPrefix, getPreviousSibling, getTextContent, getUserData, hasAttributes, hasChildNodes, insertBefore, isDefaultNamespace, isEqualNode, isSameNode, isSupported, lookupNamespaceURI, lookupPrefix, normalize, removeChild, replaceChild, setNodeValue, setPrefix, setTextContent, setUserData`
  Modifier and Type
  Method
  Description
  `Node`
  `appendChild(Node newChild)`
  Adds the node `newChild` to the end of the list of children of this node.
  `Node`
  `cloneNode(boolean deep)`
  Returns a duplicate of this node, i.e., serves as a generic copy constructor for nodes.
  `short`
  `compareDocumentPosition(Node other)`
  Compares the reference node, i.e. the node on which this method is being called, with a node, i.e. the one passed as a parameter, with regard to their position in the document and according to the document order.
  `NamedNodeMap`
  `getAttributes()`
  A `NamedNodeMap` containing the attributes of this node (if it is an `Element`) or `null` otherwise.
  `String`
  `getBaseURI()`
  The absolute base URI of this node or `null` if the implementation wasn't able to obtain an absolute URI.
  `NodeList`
  `getChildNodes()`
  A `NodeList` that contains all children of this node.
  `Object`
  `getFeature(String feature, String version)`
  This method returns a specialized object which implements the specialized APIs of the specified feature and version, as specified in .
  `Node`
  `getFirstChild()`
  The first child of this node.
  `Node`
  `getLastChild()`
  The last child of this node.
  `String`
  `getLocalName()`
  Returns the local part of the qualified name of this node.
  `String`
  `getNamespaceURI()`
  The namespace URI of this node, or `null` if it is unspecified (see ).
  `Node`
  `getNextSibling()`
  The node immediately following this node.
  `String`
  `getNodeName()`
  The name of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
  `short`
  `getNodeType()`
  A code representing the type of the underlying object, as defined above.
  `String`
  `getNodeValue()`
  The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
  `Document`
  `getOwnerDocument()`
  The `Document` object associated with this node.
  `Node`
  `getParentNode()`
  The parent of this node.
  `String`
  `getPrefix()`
  The namespace prefix of this node, or `null` if it is unspecified.
  `Node`
  `getPreviousSibling()`
  The node immediately preceding this node.
  `String`
  `getTextContent()`
  This attribute returns the text content of this node and its descendants.
  `Object`
  `getUserData(String key)`
  Retrieves the object associated to a key on a this node.
  `boolean`
  `hasAttributes()`
  Returns whether this node (if it is an element) has any attributes.
  `boolean`
  `hasChildNodes()`
  Returns whether this node has any children.
  `Node`
  `insertBefore(Node newChild, Node refChild)`
  Inserts the node `newChild` before the existing child node `refChild`.
  `boolean`
  `isDefaultNamespace(String namespaceURI)`
  This method checks if the specified `namespaceURI` is the default namespace or not.
  `boolean`
  `isEqualNode(Node arg)`
  Tests whether two nodes are equal.
  `boolean`
  `isSameNode(Node other)`
  Returns whether this node is the same node as the given one.
  `boolean`
  `isSupported(String feature, String version)`
  Tests whether the DOM implementation implements a specific feature and that feature is supported by this node, as specified in .
  `String`
  `lookupNamespaceURI(String prefix)`
  Look up the namespace URI associated to the given prefix, starting from this node.
  `String`
  `lookupPrefix(String namespaceURI)`
  Look up the prefix associated to the given namespace URI, starting from this node.
  `void`
  `normalize()`
  Puts all `Text` nodes in the full depth of the sub-tree underneath this `Node`, including attribute nodes, into a "normal" form where only structure (e.g., elements, comments, processing instructions, CDATA sections, and entity references) separates `Text` nodes, i.e., there are neither adjacent `Text` nodes nor empty `Text` nodes.
  `Node`
  `removeChild(Node oldChild)`
  Removes the child node indicated by `oldChild` from the list of children, and returns it.
  `Node`
  `replaceChild(Node newChild, Node oldChild)`
  Replaces the child node `oldChild` with `newChild` in the list of children, and returns the `oldChild` node.
  `void`
  `setNodeValue(String nodeValue)`
  The value of this node, depending on its type; see the table above.
  `void`
  `setPrefix(String prefix)`
  The namespace prefix of this node, or `null` if it is unspecified.
  `void`
  `setTextContent(String textContent)`
  This attribute returns the text content of this node and its descendants.
  `Object`
  `setUserData(String key, Object data, UserDataHandler handler)`
  Associate an object to a key on this node.