xmlwrite - Control the order of attributes

Hi,

I wrote the following script to generate a XML-file...

xml_doc = com.mathworks.xml.XMLUtils.createDocument('Node');

root = xml_doc.getDocumentElement();
tool_elem = xml_doc.createElement('Tool');
tool_elem.setAttribute('name','me');
tool_elem.setAttribute('defaultValue','1122');

root.appendChild(tool_elem);
disp (xmlwrite(xml_doc));

... and I get the following result:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Node>
   <Tool defaultValue="1122" name="me"/>
</Node>

I know that the order is irrelevant from the point of the XML specification, but I would like to have the attribute "name" before "defaultValue" for readability.

Can I modify the order of the attributes?

Answer 1

[Jan]

It is the nature of XML files, that the order of the attributes do not matter. Therefore I expect, that there is no way to determine the order. Some tests with different names look, like xmlwrite sorts the names of the attributes alphabetically. If you assume, that a modfied order of the attributes is easier to read, you have to access the text directly in an editor. Although this is possible and a wanted feature of XML, a smart XML viewer would be much better, especially if readability matters.

[Olaf Oelsner]

I agree to your arguments. I was just curious.