Java Utililty Methods XML Element Get

NodeList bas = element.getParentNode().getChildNodes();
Element searchedElement = null;
boolean found = false;
for (int i = 0; i < bas.getLength() && (searchedElement == null || !found); i++) {
    if (element.equals(bas.item(i)))
        found = true;
    else if (bas.item(i) instanceof Element) {
        if (before && !found)
...

NodeList nodeList = getElementList(element, name);
return (nodeList.getLength() == 0) ? null : (Element) nodeList.item(0);

return (Element) element.getElementsByTagName(name).item(index);

NodeList nodes = element.getElementsByTagName(tag);
if (nodes != null && nodes.getLength() > 0) {
    Element childElement = (Element) nodes.item(0);
    String nodeName = null;
    if (childElement != null) {
        nodeName = childElement.getNodeName();
    if (nodeName != null && nodeName.compareTo(tag) == 0) {
...

final NodeList nodeList = element.getElementsByTagName(tagName);
if (nodeList == null || nodeList.getLength() < 1) {
    return null;
int length = nodeList.getLength();
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
    Element childEle = (Element) nodeList.item(i);
    if (childEle == null || childEle.getParentNode() == element) {
...

NodeList nodes = element.getElementsByTagNameNS(namespace, tagName);
if (nodes.getLength() > 0) {
    return ((Element) nodes.item(0));
} else {
    return null;

if (root == null || name == null || name.length() <= 0)
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Null or invalid argument passed to XmlUtil.getElement()");
NodeList lst = root.getChildNodes();
int size = lst.getLength();
name = localName(name);
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
    Node node = lst.item(i);
    if (node.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE) {
...

if (null == expression || expression.isEmpty() || null == doc) {
    return null;
log.finer("Executing xpath xpression " + expression);
XPath xPath = XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
XPathExpression expr = xPath.compile(expression);
Object result = expr.evaluate(doc, XPathConstants.NODE);
return (Element) result;
...

if (message == null) 
    return null;
SOAPBody elementBody = message.getSOAPPart().getEnvelope().getBody();
if (elementBody == null) 
    return null;
NodeList nl = elementBody.getElementsByTagNameNS(nsURI, tagname);
if (nl.getLength() <= whichOne) {
    return null;
...

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