XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Wolfgang Hoschek <whoschek AT lbl.gov>]

Here is a small optimization to Element.getValue(), with a fast path  
for cases where an element has one and only one Text child:

    public final String getValue() {

        // non-recursive algorithm avoids stack size limitations
        if (this.getChildCount() == 0) return "";
        Node current = this.getChild(0);
        if (this.getChildCount() == 1 && current.isText()) return  
current.getValue(); // WH fast path
        StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer(); // WH
        int index = 0;
        ...
    }

I've seen an app where this resulted in a speedup factor 50 (!) with  
the stringified Text version (not just because StringBuffer copying  
is avoided, but mainly because using the returned String in a HashMap  
reduces equality comparisons to == and String.hashCode() to O(1)  
because the hashcode is internally cached by String).

Wolfgang.