Last element of DefaultStyledDocument has \n appended, why?

Question

Hello!
I have some trouble getting the text of styledDocument in JTextPane. I get the text recursively by traversing the Elements and convert that to xml and save it. I do not understand why I get \n as last leaf-Element. There is no \n when I call getText in Document or JTextPane. So with every saving and loading the document gets longer and longer because there is \n appended every time.
Here is a small program that shows the problem:
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
public class TextPaneWriter extends JFrame {
     public TextPaneWriter() {
          DefaultStyledDocument doc = new DefaultStyledDocument();
          try {
               SimpleAttributeSet a = new SimpleAttributeSet();
               StyleConstants.setBold(a, true);
               doc.insertString(doc.getLength(),
                         "I wish I was in Carrickfergus\n", a);
               a = new SimpleAttributeSet();
               StyleConstants.setItalic(a, true);
               doc.insertString(doc.getLength(),
                         "Only for nights in Ballygrant\n", a);
               a = new SimpleAttributeSet();
               StyleConstants.setUnderline(a, true);
               doc.insertString(doc.getLength(),
                         "I would swim over the deepest ocean,\n", a);
               a = new SimpleAttributeSet();
               StyleConstants.setBold(a, true);
               doc.insertString(doc.getLength(),
                         "For my love to find", a);
          catch (BadLocationException x) {
          JTextPane tp = new JTextPane(doc);
          this.getContentPane().add(tp);
          System.out.println("Get text of JTextPane:");
          System.out.println(tp.getText() + "END");
          System.out.println();
          System.out.println("Get text of Document:");
          try {
               System.out.println(doc.getText(0, doc.getLength()) + "END");
          catch (BadLocationException x) {
          System.out.println();
          System.out.println("Get text recursively:");
          this.writeDocRec(doc.getDefaultRootElement(), doc);
          this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          this.setSize(200,200);
          this.setVisible(true);
     private String getTextOfElement(Element styledElement,
               DefaultStyledDocument doc) {
          String text = "";
          int startOffset = styledElement.getStartOffset();
          int endOffset = styledElement.getEndOffset();
          try {
               text = doc.getText(startOffset, endOffset-startOffset);
          catch (BadLocationException x) {
               x.printStackTrace();
          return text;
     private void writeDocRec(javax.swing.text.Element element,
               DefaultStyledDocument doc) {
          if (element.isLeaf()) return;
          for (int i=0; i<element.getElementCount(); i++) {
               javax.swing.text.Element child = element.getElement(i);
                              if (child.isLeaf()) {
                    System.out.print(this.getTextOfElement(child, doc) + "END OF ELEMENT\n");
               writeDocRec(child, doc);
      * @param args
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          new TextPaneWriter();
}And this is what I am getting:
Get text of JTextPane:
I wish I was in Carrickfergus
Only for nights in Ballygrant
I would swim over the deepest ocean,
For my love to findEND
Get text of Document:
I wish I was in Carrickfergus
Only for nights in Ballygrant
I would swim over the deepest ocean,
For my love to findEND
Get text recursively:
I wish I was in Carrickfergus
END OF ELEMENT
Only for nights in Ballygrant
END OF ELEMENT
I would swim over the deepest ocean,
END OF ELEMENT
For my love to findEND OF ELEMENT
END OF ELEMENT
So why is there another element with \n?
I can only think of digging in the xml-document after parsing finding the last element and removing the last \n. Or is it \n\r or \r\n?!?!? It does not feel good to do something like that........
Thank you!
Annette
Message was edited by:
Annette

Answer 1

Sometimes a bit of sleep is better than any thinking!
I had an idea this morning and it seams to be working. I change the recursive method to:
     private void writeDocRec(javax.swing.text.Element element,
               DefaultStyledDocument doc) {
          if (element.isLeaf()) return;
          for (int i=0; i<element.getElementCount(); i++) {
               javax.swing.text.Element child = element.getElement(i);
               if (child.isLeaf()) {
                    int start = child.getStartOffset();
                    int end = child.getEndOffset();
                    int len = doc.getLength();
                    if (end > len) System.out.println("len " + len
                              + " start " + start + " end " + end);
                    else System.out.print(this.getTextOfElement(child, doc)
                              + "END OF ELEMENT\n");
               writeDocRec(child, doc);
     }I found that the last element, that I do NOT want and that contains that \n has endIndex > doc.getLength(). So if I find an element that satisfies this condition I know it is the last, not wanted element, and skip it. Does it make any sense to have an element with index > length?
Do you think that this is a good solution? Or is it some kind of trial and error and not really understanding what is going on?
I would appreciate some advices. Thank you!
Annette