return value of xml object length function doesn't show in databrowser instead showing xml object

Hi Take,

What Loïc meant—I guess—is that length is not a regular property of an XML instance, since XML.prototype has no properties at all (it only has methods.) The reason is syntactic: any myXML.foobar syntax is interpreted in a way that makes it refer to an XML child of myXML. This remains true even if foobar is not an actual child of the XML structure. Therefore, myXML.length is syntactically an XML instance (and more accurately, an XMLList instance.)

And here is a case it could have actual data:

var myXML = <root><length>hello</length></root>;

alert( myXML.length ); // => hello

Apart from that—and as a purely homonymic fact—it turns out that length() is a method of both XML.prototype and XMLList.prototype, as specified in ECMA-357: https://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST-WITHDRAWN/Ecma-357.pdf#page=94

Note that there is no connection between myXML.length and myXML.length(). The latter will return an integer. For example, in the above example, we have myXML.length.length()==1 ;-)

@+

Marc