How can I create a self closing tag using JDOM

Question

I could find in Jdom api any function to create self closing xml tag like the <selfClosingTag /> below.

For example, I need to create the following content:

<parentTag>
  <selfClosingTag />
  <firstChild>......    </firstChild>
  <secondChild>......    </secondChild>
</parentTag>

Can someone please tell me how. Please tell me I should not do it because this kind of self-closing tag is required in mathml document.

Thanks, Chepukha

Answer 1

Any element you create, that you don't add any child nodes to, will be empty. An empty element can be represented as <element/> or <element></element>. Which one shouldn't really matter.

Answer 2

It seems like modifying your XMLOutputter like this should do the trick:

outputter.setFormat(outputter.getFormat().setExpandEmptyElements(false));

See the javadoc for setExpandEmptyElements.