How do I create an XML root node in Scala without a literal element name?
scala, scala-2.8, xml
Solution
You should pass the empty list for attributes (`scala.xml.Null`) and if you don't want any children, you shouldn't even include the final argument. You want an empty list of children, not a single child that happens to be `null`. So:
scala> val root_node_name = "root"
root_node_name: java.lang.String = root
scala> val doc = new scala.xml.Elem(null, root_node_name, scala.xml.Null , scala.xml.TopScope)
doc: scala.xml.Elem = <root></root>
Problem
I'm looking to create a document like this: ``` <root/> ``` That I can add children to programatically. Theoretically, it would look like this: ``` val root_node_name = "root" val doc = <{root_node_name}/> ``` But that doesn't seem to work: ``` error: not found: value < ``` So, what I tried instead was this: ``` val root_node_name = "root" val doc = new scala.xml.Elem(null, root_node_name, null, scala.xml.TopScope, null) ``` That compiles but at runtime I get this null pointer exception: ``` java.lang.NullPointerException at scala.xml.Utility$.toXML(Utility.scala:201) at scala.xml.Utility$$anonfun$sequenceToXML$2.apply(Utility.scala:235) at scala.xml.Utility$$anonfun$sequenceToXML$2.apply(Utility.scala:235) at scala.Iterator$class.foreach(Iterator.scala:414) at scala.runtime.BoxedArray$AnyIterator.foreach(BoxedArray.scala:45) at scala.Iterable$class.foreach(Iterable... ``` I'm using Scala 2.8. Any examples of how to pull this off? Thanks.