Module java.xml
Package javax.xml.stream

# Interface XMLStreamReader

All Superinterfaces:
  `XMLStreamConstants`

All Known Implementing Classes:
  `StreamReaderDelegate`

public interface XMLStreamReader extends XMLStreamConstants
The XMLStreamReader interface allows forward, read-only access to XML. It is designed to be the lowest level and most efficient way to read XML data.

The XMLStreamReader is designed to iterate over XML using next() and hasNext(). The data can be accessed using methods such as getEventType(), getNamespaceURI(), getLocalName() and getText();

An XMLStreamReader instance is created with an initial event type START_DOCUMENT. At any moment in time, it has a current event that the methods of the interface access and may load the next event through the `next()` method. The current event type can be determined by `getEventType()`, and the next returned by the `next()` method.

Parsing events are defined as the XML Declaration, a DTD, start tag, character data, white space, end tag, comment, or processing instruction. An attribute or namespace event may be encountered at the root level of a document as the result of a query operation.

For XML 1.0 compliance an XML processor must pass the identifiers of declared unparsed entities, notation declarations and their associated identifiers to the application. This information is provided through the property API on this interface. The following two properties allow access to this information: javax.xml.stream.notations and javax.xml.stream.entities. When the current event is a DTD the following call will return a list of Notations `List l = (List) getProperty("javax.xml.stream.notations");` The following call will return a list of entity declarations: `List l = (List) getProperty("javax.xml.stream.entities");` These properties can only be accessed during a DTD event and are defined to return null if the information is not available.

The following table describes which methods are valid in what state. If a method is called in an invalid state the method will throw a java.lang.IllegalStateException.

Valid methods for each state
Event Type | Valid Methods
--- | ---
All States | getProperty(), hasNext(), require(), close(), getNamespaceURI(), isStartElement(), isEndElement(), isCharacters(), isWhiteSpace(), getNamespaceContext(), getEventType(),getLocation(), hasText(), hasName()
START_ELEMENT | next(), getName(), getLocalName(), hasName(), getPrefix(), getAttributeXXX(), isAttributeSpecified(), getNamespaceXXX(), getElementText(), nextTag()
ATTRIBUTE | next(), nextTag() getAttributeXXX(), isAttributeSpecified(),
NAMESPACE | next(), nextTag() getNamespaceXXX()
END_ELEMENT | next(), getName(), getLocalName(), hasName(), getPrefix(), getNamespaceXXX(), nextTag()
CHARACTERS | next(), getTextXXX(), nextTag()
CDATA | next(), getTextXXX(), nextTag()
COMMENT | next(), getTextXXX(), nextTag()
SPACE | next(), getTextXXX(), nextTag()
START_DOCUMENT | next(), getEncoding(), getVersion(), isStandalone(), standaloneSet(), getCharacterEncodingScheme(), nextTag()
END_DOCUMENT | close()
PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION | next(), getPITarget(), getPIData(), nextTag()
ENTITY_REFERENCE | next(), getLocalName(), getText(), nextTag()
DTD | next(), getText(), nextTag()

Since:
  1.6
See Also:
  - `XMLEvent`
  - `XMLInputFactory`
  - `XMLStreamWriter`

## Field Summary

### Fields declared in interface javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamConstants

`ATTRIBUTE, CDATA, CHARACTERS, COMMENT, DTD, END_DOCUMENT, END_ELEMENT, ENTITY_DECLARATION, ENTITY_REFERENCE, NAMESPACE, NOTATION_DECLARATION, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION, SPACE, START_DOCUMENT, START_ELEMENT`

## Method Summary

Modifier and Type
Method
Description
`void`
`close()`
Frees any resources associated with this Reader.
`int`
`getAttributeCount()`
Returns the count of attributes on this START_ELEMENT, this method is only valid on a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE.
`String`
`getAttributeLocalName(int index)`
Returns the localName of the attribute at the provided index
`QName`
`getAttributeName(int index)`
Returns the qname of the attribute at the provided index
`String`
`getAttributeNamespace(int index)`
Returns the namespace of the attribute at the provided index
`String`
`getAttributePrefix(int index)`
Returns the prefix of this attribute at the provided index
`String`
`getAttributeType(int index)`
Returns the XML type of the attribute at the provided index
`String`
`getAttributeValue(int index)`
Returns the value of the attribute at the index
`String`
`getAttributeValue(String namespaceURI, String localName)`
Returns the normalized attribute value of the attribute with the namespace and localName If the namespaceURI is null the namespace is not checked for equality
`String`
`getCharacterEncodingScheme()`
Returns the character encoding declared on the xml declaration Returns null if none was declared
`String`
`getElementText()`
Reads the content of a text-only element, an exception is thrown if this is not a text-only element.
`String`
`getEncoding()`
Return input encoding if known or null if unknown.
`int`
`getEventType()`
Returns an integer code that indicates the type of the event the cursor is pointing to.
`String`
`getLocalName()`
Returns the (local) name of the current event.
`Location`
`getLocation()`
Return the current location of the processor.
`QName`
`getName()`
Returns a QName for the current START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT event
`NamespaceContext`
`getNamespaceContext()`
Returns a read only namespace context for the current position.
`int`
`getNamespaceCount()`
Returns the count of namespaces declared on this START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT, this method is only valid on a START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT or NAMESPACE.
`String`
`getNamespacePrefix(int index)`
Returns the prefix for the namespace declared at the index.
`String`
`getNamespaceURI()`
If the current event is a START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT this method returns the URI of the prefix or the default namespace.
`String`
`getNamespaceURI(int index)`
Returns the uri for the namespace declared at the index.
`String`
`getNamespaceURI(String prefix)`
Return the uri for the given prefix.
`String`
`getPIData()`
Get the data section of a processing instruction
`String`
`getPITarget()`
Get the target of a processing instruction
`String`
`getPrefix()`
Returns the prefix of the current event or null if the event does not have a prefix
`Object`
`getProperty(String name)`
Get the value of a feature/property from the underlying implementation
`String`
`getText()`
Returns the current value of the parse event as a string, this returns the string value of a CHARACTERS event, returns the value of a COMMENT, the replacement value for an ENTITY_REFERENCE, the string value of a CDATA section, the string value for a SPACE event, or the String value of the internal subset of the DTD.
`char[]`
`getTextCharacters()`
Returns an array which contains the characters from this event.
`int`
`getTextCharacters(int sourceStart, char[] target, int targetStart, int length)`
Gets the the text associated with a CHARACTERS, SPACE or CDATA event.
`int`
`getTextLength()`
Returns the length of the sequence of characters for this Text event within the text character array.
`int`
`getTextStart()`
Returns the offset into the text character array where the first character (of this text event) is stored.
`String`
`getVersion()`
Get the xml version declared on the xml declaration Returns null if none was declared
`boolean`
`hasName()`
returns a boolean indicating whether the current event has a name (is a START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT).
`boolean`
`hasNext()`
Returns true if there are more parsing events and false if there are no more events.
`boolean`
`hasText()`
Return a boolean indicating whether the current event has text.
`boolean`
`isAttributeSpecified(int index)`
Returns a boolean which indicates if this attribute was created by default
`boolean`
`isCharacters()`
Returns true if the cursor points to a character data event
`boolean`
`isEndElement()`
Returns true if the cursor points to an end tag (otherwise false)
`boolean`
`isStandalone()`
Get the standalone declaration from the xml declaration
`boolean`
`isStartElement()`
Returns true if the cursor points to a start tag (otherwise false)
`boolean`
`isWhiteSpace()`
Returns true if the cursor points to a character data event that consists of all whitespace
`int`
`next()`
Get next parsing event - a processor may return all contiguous character data in a single chunk, or it may split it into several chunks.
`int`
`nextTag()`
Skips any white space (isWhiteSpace() returns true), COMMENT, or PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION, until a START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT is reached.
`void`
`require(int type, String namespaceURI, String localName)`
Test if the current event is of the given type and if the namespace and name match the current namespace and name of the current event.
`boolean`
`standaloneSet()`
Checks if standalone was set in the document

## Method Details

### getProperty

Object getProperty(String name) throws IllegalArgumentException
Get the value of a feature/property from the underlying implementation

Parameters:
  `name` - The name of the property, may not be null
Returns:
  The value of the property
Throws:
  `IllegalArgumentException` - if name is null

### next

int next() throws XMLStreamException
Get next parsing event - a processor may return all contiguous character data in a single chunk, or it may split it into several chunks. If the property javax.xml.stream.isCoalescing is set to true element content must be coalesced and only one CHARACTERS event must be returned for contiguous element content or CDATA Sections. By default entity references must be expanded and reported transparently to the application. An exception will be thrown if an entity reference cannot be expanded. If element content is empty (i.e. content is "") then no CHARACTERS event will be reported.

Given the following XML:
`<foo><!--description-->content text<![CDATA[<greeting>Hello>/greeting>]]>other content>/foo>`
The behavior of calling next() when being on foo will be:
1- the comment (COMMENT)
2- then the characters section (CHARACTERS)
3- then the CDATA section (another CHARACTERS)
4- then the next characters section (another CHARACTERS)
5- then the END_ELEMENT

NOTE: empty element (such as `<tag/>`) will be reported with two separate events: START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT - This preserves parsing equivalency of empty element to `<tag></tag>`.

Returns:
  the integer code corresponding to the current parse event
Throws:
  `NoSuchElementException` - if this is called when hasNext() returns false
  `XMLStreamException` - if there is an error processing the underlying XML source
See Also:
  - `XMLEvent`

### require

void require(int type, String namespaceURI, String localName) throws XMLStreamException
Test if the current event is of the given type and if the namespace and name match the current namespace and name of the current event. If the namespaceURI is null it is not checked for equality, if the localName is null it is not checked for equality.

Parameters:
  `type` - the event type
  `namespaceURI` - the uri of the event, may be null
  `localName` - the localName of the event, may be null
Throws:
  `XMLStreamException` - if the required values are not matched.

### getElementText

String getElementText() throws XMLStreamException
Reads the content of a text-only element, an exception is thrown if this is not a text-only element. Regardless of value of javax.xml.stream.isCoalescing this method always returns coalesced content.
Precondition: the current event is START_ELEMENT.
Postcondition: the current event is the corresponding END_ELEMENT.
The method does the following (implementations are free to optimized but must do equivalent processing):

     if(getEventType() != XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT) {
         throw new XMLStreamException(
         "parser must be on START_ELEMENT to read next text", getLocation());
     }

     int eventType = next();
     StringBuffer content = new StringBuffer();
     while(eventType != XMLStreamConstants.END_ELEMENT) {
         if(eventType == XMLStreamConstants.CHARACTERS
            || eventType == XMLStreamConstants.CDATA
            || eventType == XMLStreamConstants.SPACE
            || eventType == XMLStreamConstants.ENTITY_REFERENCE) {
               buf.append(getText());
         } else if(eventType == XMLStreamConstants.PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION
                   || eventType == XMLStreamConstants.COMMENT) {
             // skipping
         } else if(eventType == XMLStreamConstants.END_DOCUMENT) {
             throw new XMLStreamException(
             "unexpected end of document when reading element text content", this);
         } else if(eventType == XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT) {
             throw new XMLStreamException(
             "element text content may not contain START_ELEMENT", getLocation());
         } else {
             throw new XMLStreamException(
             "Unexpected event type "+eventType, getLocation());
         }
         eventType = next();
     }
     return buf.toString();

Returns:
  the content of a text-only element
Throws:
  `XMLStreamException` - if the current event is not a START_ELEMENT or if a non text element is encountered

### nextTag

int nextTag() throws XMLStreamException
Skips any white space (isWhiteSpace() returns true), COMMENT, or PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION, until a START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT is reached. If other than white space characters, COMMENT, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION, START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT are encountered, an exception is thrown. This method should be used when processing element-only content seperated by white space.
Precondition: none
Postcondition: the current event is START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT and cursor may have moved over any whitespace event.
Essentially it does the following (implementations are free to optimized but must do equivalent processing):

     int eventType = next();
     while((eventType == XMLStreamConstants.CHARACTERS && isWhiteSpace()) // skip whitespace
     || (eventType == XMLStreamConstants.CDATA && isWhiteSpace())
     // skip whitespace
     || eventType == XMLStreamConstants.SPACE
     || eventType == XMLStreamConstants.PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION
     || eventType == XMLStreamConstants.COMMENT
     ) {
         eventType = next();
     }
     if (eventType != XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT && eventType != XMLStreamConstants.END_ELEMENT) {
         throw new String XMLStreamException("expected start or end tag", getLocation());
     }
     return eventType;

Returns:
  the event type of the element read (START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT)
Throws:
  `XMLStreamException` - if the current event is not white space, PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION, START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT
  `NoSuchElementException` - if this is called when hasNext() returns false

### hasNext

boolean hasNext() throws XMLStreamException
Returns true if there are more parsing events and false if there are no more events. This method will return false if the current state of the XMLStreamReader is END_DOCUMENT

Returns:
  true if there are more events, false otherwise
Throws:
  `XMLStreamException` - if there is a fatal error detecting the next state

### close

void close() throws XMLStreamException
Frees any resources associated with this Reader. This method does not close the underlying input source.

Throws:
  `XMLStreamException` - if there are errors freeing associated resources

### getNamespaceURI

String getNamespaceURI(String prefix)
Return the uri for the given prefix. The uri returned depends on the current state of the processor.

NOTE:The 'xml' prefix is bound as defined in Namespaces in XML specification to "http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace".

NOTE: The 'xmlns' prefix must be resolved to following namespace http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/

Parameters:
  `prefix` - The prefix to lookup, may not be null
Returns:
  the uri bound to the given prefix or null if it is not bound
Throws:
  `IllegalArgumentException` - if the prefix is null

### isStartElement

boolean isStartElement()
Returns true if the cursor points to a start tag (otherwise false)

Returns:
  true if the cursor points to a start tag, false otherwise

### isEndElement

boolean isEndElement()
Returns true if the cursor points to an end tag (otherwise false)

Returns:
  true if the cursor points to an end tag, false otherwise

### isCharacters

boolean isCharacters()
Returns true if the cursor points to a character data event

Returns:
  true if the cursor points to character data, false otherwise

### isWhiteSpace

boolean isWhiteSpace()
Returns true if the cursor points to a character data event that consists of all whitespace

Returns:
  true if the cursor points to all whitespace, false otherwise

### getAttributeValue

String getAttributeValue(String namespaceURI, String localName)
Returns the normalized attribute value of the attribute with the namespace and localName If the namespaceURI is null the namespace is not checked for equality

Parameters:
  `namespaceURI` - the namespace of the attribute
  `localName` - the local name of the attribute, cannot be null
Returns:
  returns the value of the attribute , returns null if not found
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getAttributeCount

int getAttributeCount()
Returns the count of attributes on this START_ELEMENT, this method is only valid on a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE. This count excludes namespace definitions. Attribute indices are zero-based.

Returns:
  returns the number of attributes
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getAttributeName

QName getAttributeName(int index)
Returns the qname of the attribute at the provided index

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the attribute
Returns:
  the QName of the attribute
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getAttributeNamespace

String getAttributeNamespace(int index)
Returns the namespace of the attribute at the provided index

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the attribute
Returns:
  the namespace URI (can be null)
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getAttributeLocalName

String getAttributeLocalName(int index)
Returns the localName of the attribute at the provided index

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the attribute
Returns:
  the localName of the attribute
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getAttributePrefix

String getAttributePrefix(int index)
Returns the prefix of this attribute at the provided index

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the attribute
Returns:
  the prefix of the attribute
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getAttributeType

String getAttributeType(int index)
Returns the XML type of the attribute at the provided index

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the attribute
Returns:
  the XML type of the attribute
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getAttributeValue

String getAttributeValue(int index)
Returns the value of the attribute at the index

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the attribute
Returns:
  the attribute value
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### isAttributeSpecified

boolean isAttributeSpecified(int index)
Returns a boolean which indicates if this attribute was created by default

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the attribute
Returns:
  true if this is a default attribute
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or ATTRIBUTE

### getNamespaceCount

int getNamespaceCount()
Returns the count of namespaces declared on this START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT, this method is only valid on a START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT or NAMESPACE. On an END_ELEMENT the count is of the namespaces that are about to go out of scope. This is the equivalent of the information reported by SAX callback for an end element event.

Returns:
  returns the number of namespace declarations on this specific element
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT or NAMESPACE

### getNamespacePrefix

String getNamespacePrefix(int index)
Returns the prefix for the namespace declared at the index. Returns null if this is the default namespace declaration

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the namespace declaration
Returns:
  returns the namespace prefix
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT or NAMESPACE

### getNamespaceURI

String getNamespaceURI(int index)
Returns the uri for the namespace declared at the index.

Parameters:
  `index` - the position of the namespace declaration
Returns:
  returns the namespace uri
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT or NAMESPACE

### getNamespaceContext

NamespaceContext getNamespaceContext()
Returns a read only namespace context for the current position. The context is transient and only valid until a call to next() changes the state of the reader.

Returns:
  return a namespace context

### getEventType

int getEventType()
Returns an integer code that indicates the type of the event the cursor is pointing to. The initial event type is `XMLStreamConstants.START_DOCUMENT`.

Returns:
  the type of the current event

### getText

String getText()
Returns the current value of the parse event as a string, this returns the string value of a CHARACTERS event, returns the value of a COMMENT, the replacement value for an ENTITY_REFERENCE, the string value of a CDATA section, the string value for a SPACE event, or the String value of the internal subset of the DTD. If an ENTITY_REFERENCE has been resolved, any character data will be reported as CHARACTERS events.

Returns:
  the current text or null
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this state is not a valid text state.

### getTextCharacters

char[] getTextCharacters()
Returns an array which contains the characters from this event. This array should be treated as read-only and transient. I.e. the array will contain the text characters until the XMLStreamReader moves on to the next event. Attempts to hold onto the character array beyond that time or modify the contents of the array are breaches of the contract for this interface.

Returns:
  the current text or an empty array
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this state is not a valid text state.

### getTextCharacters

int getTextCharacters(int sourceStart, char[] target, int targetStart, int length) throws XMLStreamException
Gets the the text associated with a CHARACTERS, SPACE or CDATA event. Text starting a "sourceStart" is copied into "target" starting at "targetStart". Up to "length" characters are copied. The number of characters actually copied is returned. The "sourceStart" argument must be greater or equal to 0 and less than or equal to the number of characters associated with the event. Usually, one requests text starting at a "sourceStart" of 0. If the number of characters actually copied is less than the "length", then there is no more text. Otherwise, subsequent calls need to be made until all text has been retrieved. For example:

     int length = 1024;
     char[] myBuffer = new char[ length ];

     for ( int sourceStart = 0 ; ; sourceStart += length )
     {
        int nCopied = stream.getTextCharacters( sourceStart, myBuffer, 0, length );

       if (nCopied < length)
           break;
     }

XMLStreamException may be thrown if there are any XML errors in the underlying source. The "targetStart" argument must be greater than or equal to 0 and less than the length of "target", Length must be greater than 0 and "targetStart + length" must be less than or equal to length of "target".

Parameters:
  `sourceStart` - the index of the first character in the source array to copy
  `target` - the destination array
  `targetStart` - the start offset in the target array
  `length` - the number of characters to copy
Returns:
  the number of characters actually copied
Throws:
  `XMLStreamException` - if the underlying XML source is not well-formed
  `IndexOutOfBoundsException` - if targetStart < 0 or > than the length of target
  `IndexOutOfBoundsException` - if length < 0 or targetStart + length > length of target
  `UnsupportedOperationException` - if this method is not supported
  `NullPointerException` - is if target is null

### getTextStart

int getTextStart()
Returns the offset into the text character array where the first character (of this text event) is stored.

Returns:
  the starting position of the text in the character array
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this state is not a valid text state.

### getTextLength

int getTextLength()
Returns the length of the sequence of characters for this Text event within the text character array.

Returns:
  the length of the text
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this state is not a valid text state.

### getEncoding

String getEncoding()
Return input encoding if known or null if unknown.

Returns:
  the encoding of this instance or null

### hasText

boolean hasText()
Return a boolean indicating whether the current event has text. The following events have text: CHARACTERS,DTD ,ENTITY_REFERENCE, COMMENT, SPACE

Returns:
  true if the event has text, false otherwise

### getLocation

Location getLocation()
Return the current location of the processor. If the Location is unknown the processor should return an implementation of Location that returns -1 for the location and null for the publicId and systemId. The location information is only valid until next() is called.

Returns:
  the location of the cursor

### getName

QName getName()
Returns a QName for the current START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT event

Returns:
  the QName for the current START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT event
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this is not a START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT

### getLocalName

String getLocalName()
Returns the (local) name of the current event. For START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT returns the (local) name of the current element. For ENTITY_REFERENCE it returns entity name. The current event must be START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT, or ENTITY_REFERENCE

Returns:
  the localName
Throws:
  `IllegalStateException` - if this not a START_ELEMENT, END_ELEMENT or ENTITY_REFERENCE

### hasName

boolean hasName()
returns a boolean indicating whether the current event has a name (is a START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT).

Returns:
  true if the event has a name, false otherwise

### getNamespaceURI

String getNamespaceURI()
If the current event is a START_ELEMENT or END_ELEMENT this method returns the URI of the prefix or the default namespace. Returns null if the event does not have a prefix.

Returns:
  the URI bound to this elements prefix, the default namespace, or null

### getPrefix

String getPrefix()
Returns the prefix of the current event or null if the event does not have a prefix

Returns:
  the prefix or null

### getVersion

String getVersion()
Get the xml version declared on the xml declaration Returns null if none was declared

Returns:
  the XML version or null

### isStandalone

boolean isStandalone()
Get the standalone declaration from the xml declaration

Returns:
  true if this is standalone, or false otherwise

### standaloneSet

boolean standaloneSet()
Checks if standalone was set in the document

Returns:
  true if standalone was set in the document, or false otherwise

### getCharacterEncodingScheme

String getCharacterEncodingScheme()
Returns the character encoding declared on the xml declaration Returns null if none was declared

Returns:
  the encoding declared in the document or null

### getPITarget

String getPITarget()
Get the target of a processing instruction

Returns:
  the target or null

### getPIData

String getPIData()
Get the data section of a processing instruction

Returns:
  the data or null