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IsClear

function IsClear: Boolean;

Example​

procedure InitializeRoot(Xml: TNativeXML);
begin
  if (Xml.Root <> nil) and Xml.Root.IsClear then
    Xml.Root.Name := 'Document';
end;

Usage​

IsClear tests whether a node has no child nodes, no value and an empty name.

Additional Technical Info​

IsClear returns IsEmpty and (Length(Name) = 0). It is a structural/native-state test, not a test for serialized XML validity.

IsEmpty requires a zero all-node child count and an empty virtual Value. IsClear additionally requires an empty virtual Name. The unnamed root created by TNativeXML.Create(nil) is therefore clear until it receives a name, value, attribute or child node.

Node-kind polymorphism matters. Character-data and comment nodes expose fixed nonempty kind names such as Text or Comment, so they are not clear even when their Value is empty. An empty named element can be empty without being clear. An attribute's internally owned quoted-value object is not exposed through its base child count, so an empty-name/empty-value attribute can report clear even though that is not useful XML.

Whitespace, comments, attributes and every other retained child kind make a container nonempty because the underlying count is not element-only. The method does not trim Name or Value and does not recurse into descendants.

The call has no side effect. Use it for the freshly created unnamed-root state, not as a substitute for schema, well-formedness or business-content validation.

The example is source-reviewed only; no root was initialized.

External references

Created 2026-07-15