Java Utililty Methods XML Element Get

NodeList children = config.getChildNodes();
for (int counter = 0; counter < children.getLength(); counter++) {
    if (children.item(counter) instanceof Element) {
        Element el = (Element) children.item(counter);
        if (el.getTagName().equals(elementName)) {
            return el;
return null;

NodeList children = config.getChildNodes();
Node node;
for (int counter = 0; counter < children.getLength(); counter++) {
    node = children.item(counter);
    if (node instanceof Element) {
        if (((Element) node).getTagName().equals(elementName)) {
            return ((Element) node);
return null;

return getElement(e, "", localName);

if (e.getElementsByTagName(name) == null)
    return "";
if (e.getElementsByTagName(name).item(0) == null)
    return "";
return e.getElementsByTagName(name).item(0).getTextContent();

NodeList l = e.getChildNodes();
for (int i = 0; i < l.getLength(); i++) {
    Node n = l.item(i);
    if (n.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE) {
        Element r = (Element) n;
        if (equals(r.getLocalName(), localName) && equals(fixNull(r.getNamespaceURI()), nsUri))
            return r;
return null;

NodeList l = el.getElementsByTagName(label);
if (l.getLength() < 1)
    return null;
return (Element) l.item(0);

NodeList list = el.getElementsByTagName(tagName);
return (Element) list.item(index);

for (int i = 0; i < path.length; i++) {
    el = getImmediateSubElement(el, path[i]);
    if (el == null)
        return null;
return el;

NodeList nl = elem.getElementsByTagName(name);
if (nl.getLength() > 0)
    return (Element) nl.item(0);
else
    return null;

List elems = getElements(elem, path);
if (elems.size() == 0)
    return null;
else
    return (Element) elems.get(0);