Java tutorial
//package com.java2s; //License from project: Open Source License import org.w3c.dom.Element; import org.w3c.dom.Node; import org.w3c.dom.NodeList; public class Main { /** * @param el an Element * @return the ordinal position 1..N of this element amongst its sibling * elements (of any name), as a String; * or '0' if the element has no parent */ public static String ordinalPosition(Element el) { String position = "0"; Node parent = el.getParentNode(); if (parent instanceof Element) { int pos = 0; NodeList nl = ((Element) parent).getChildNodes(); for (int i = 0; i < nl.getLength(); i++) { Node n = nl.item(i); if (n instanceof Element) pos++; if (n.equals(el)) position = new Integer(pos).toString(); } } return position; } }