Nokogiri: Select content between element A and B

Question

What\'s the smartest way to have Nokogiri select all content between the start and the stop element (including start-/stop-element)?

Check example code below to unde

Answer 1

# monkeypatches for Nokogiri::NodeSet
# note: versions of these functions will be in Nokogiri 1.3
class Nokogiri::XML::NodeSet
  unless method_defined?(:index)
    def index(node)
      each_with_index { |member, j| return j if member == node }
    end
  end

  unless method_defined?(:slice)
    def slice(start, length)
      new_set = Nokogiri::XML::NodeSet.new(self.document)
      length.times { |offset| new_set << self[start + offset] }
      new_set
    end
  end
end

#
#  solution #1: picking elements out of node children
#  NOTE that this will also include whitespacy text nodes between the 
 elements.
#
possible_matches = parent.children
start_index = possible_matches.index(@start_element)
stop_index = possible_matches.index(@end_element)
answer_1 = possible_matches.slice(start_index, stop_index - start_index + 1)

#
#  solution #2: picking elements out of a NodeSet
#  this will only include elements, not text nodes.
#
possible_matches = value.xpath("//body/*")
start_index = possible_matches.index(@start_element)
stop_index = possible_matches.index(@end_element)
answer_2 = possible_matches.slice(start_index, stop_index - start_index + 1)