XML has Children [wether it has or not]

Question

Hello Guys
<person name="Roshi">
          <children>
               <person name="Roomi">
                    <children>
                         <person name="Andy"/>
                         <person name="Johny"/>
                    </children>
               </person>
               <person name="Hazy"/>
               <person name="sunny"/>
          </children>
     </person>;
When i use following code
if(xml.child("children")){  
trace("it has children");
}else{
trace("it has not");
but even it print "it has children" for Hazy and Sunny who dont have children
I actually want to make a comparision like
Roshi has Children
Roomi Has children
Andy Has not Children etc
for each in loops works good, but i just need to make comparision
Please guide
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

This should help I hope:
//use a wrapper tag to provide access to the top leve person tag
var xml:XML =<wrapper>
          <person name="Roshi">
          <children>
           <person name="Roomi">
             <children>
            <person name="Andy"/>
            <person name="Johny"/>
             </children>
            </person>
             <person name="Hazy"/>
             <person name="sunny"/>
          </children>
     </person>
      </wrapper>;
//try not to use XMLLists as Boolean values, because they are not 'null' and therefore evaluate to true:
if (xml.children.person.(@name=="Roomi")) trace('found Roomi, Great! (or did I?)')
if (xml.children.person.(@name=="Room")) trace('found Room, Great! (or did I?)')
//oh I see, so the XMLList evaluated as a Boolean is wrong...I need to check its length!!!!
if (xml.children.person.(@name=="Roomi").length()) trace('found Roomi, Great! Now I\'m certain')
if (xml.children.person.(@name=="Room").length()) trace('found Room wasn\'t there because the XMLList length is zero, Great! this is correct!')
//now after I understand that, lets try the looping
//get a person list from anywhere in the xml
var myPeople:XMLList = xml..person;
for each(var individual:XML in myPeople){
     var theseChildren:XMLList=individual.children.person;
     var numChild:uint = theseChildren.length()
     trace(individual.@name+" has children ?:"+Boolean(numChild))
     if (numChild) {
          trace ('the '+((numChild>1)? 'children are ':'child is '));
          for each(var directChild:XML in theseChildren) trace([email protected]())