U:RDoc::AnyMethod[iI"root_node:EFI"REXML::Element#root_node;TF:publico:RDoc::Markup::Document:@parts[	o:RDoc::Markup::Paragraph;	[	I"BEvaluates to the root node of the document that this element ;TI"Hbelongs to. If this element doesn't belong to a document, but does ;TI"Nbelong to another Element, the parent's root will be returned, until the ;TI" earliest ancestor is found.;To:RDoc::Markup::BlankLineo;
;	[I"=Note that this is not the same as the document element. ;TI"IIn the following example, <a> is the document element, and the root ;TI"Lnode is the parent node of the document element.  You may ask yourself ;TI"Lwhy the root node is useful: consider the doctype and XML declaration, ;TI"Iand any processing instructions before the document element... they ;TI"Iare children of the root node, or siblings of the document element. ;TI"IThe only time this isn't true is when an Element is created that is ;TI"Gnot part of any Document.  In this case, the ancestor that has no ;TI""parent acts as the root node.;To:RDoc::Markup::Verbatim;	[
I"+d = Document.new '<a><b><c/></b></a>'
;TI"a = d[1] ; c = a[1][1]
;TI"d.root_node == d   # TRUE
;TI"$a.root_node        # namely, d
;TI""c.root_node        # again, d;T:@format0:
@fileI"lib/rexml/element.rb;T:0@omit_headings_from_table_of_contents_below000[I"();T@$FI"Element;TcRDoc::NormalClass00