Question

The following simple codes show how I’m trying to keep white space in my XML but it doesn’t work! Any idea what I’m doing wrong here? (note the space before ‘world!’

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application 
    xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
    xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
    xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" 
    minWidth="955" minHeight="600"
    creationComplete="application1_creationCompleteHandler(event)"
    >
    <fx:Declarations>
        <!-- Place non-visual elements (e.g., services, value objects) here -->
    </fx:Declarations>

    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.events.FlexEvent;
            import mx.controls.Alert;

            XML.ignoreWhitespace = false;

            protected function application1_creationCompleteHandler(event:FlexEvent):void {
                var xmlString:String =
                    "<sentence><word1>hello</word1><word2> world!</word2></sentence>";
                trace(xmlString);

                XML.ignoreWhitespace = false;

                var xml:XML = 
                    new XML(xmlString);
                trace(xml.toXMLString());
                Alert.show(xml.toXMLString());
            }

        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
</s:Application>

Please help… Thanks!

Answer 1

Use CDATA to format your text nodes with preserving whitespaces:

<sentence><word1>hello</word1><word2><![CDATA[ world!]]></word2></sentence>

Ben is right about meaning of ignoreWhitespace.