Question

When I remove a node (with keepGrandChildren) that has both text and child nodes inside, the text is pushed all the way after the child nodes, rather than stay in its original location.

Example:

var doc = new HtmlDocument();
doc.LoadHtml(@"
<span id='first'>
    This text comes first.
    <span id='second'>This text comes second.</span>
</span>");

var node = doc.GetElementbyId("first");
node.ParentNode.RemoveChild(node, true);
doc.Save(Console.Out);

The output that I get is:

    <span id='second'>This text comes second.</span>
        this text comes first.

Instead of:

    this text comes first.
    <span id='second'>This text comes second.</span>

Is there any way of removing a node using keepGrandChildren without the text inside getting pushed towards the end?
I want to conserve absolute order and make sure that no text or nodes change their original position, otherwise the document will be ruined.

Edit:
I’m using HtmlAgilityPack 1.4.6.0 and .NET 4.0

Answer 1

It is a know issue in the HtmlAgilityPack. The following code should solve the problem:

public static void RemoveChildKeepGrandChildren(HtmlNode parent, HtmlNode oldChild)
{
    if (oldChild.ChildNodes != null)
    {
        HtmlNode previousSibling = oldChild.PreviousSibling;
        foreach (HtmlNode newChild in oldChild.ChildNodes)
        {
            parent.InsertAfter(newChild, previousSibling);
            previousSibling = newChild;  // Missing line in HtmlAgilityPack
        }
    }
    parent.RemoveChild(oldChild);
}