# Package net.sf.saxon.sapling

This package defines a public API for constructing trees; it represents trees-under-construction using a lightweight immutable data structure called a sapling; once construction of a sapling tree is complete, it can be copied to form a fully-functional XDM tree in the form of an `XdmNode` or `NodeInfo` object.

An overview of the API can be found in the Javadoc for class SaplingNode.

- Class Summary
  Class | Description
  --- | ---
  SaplingComment | A comment node in a sapling tree
  SaplingDocument | A document node in a sapling tree.
  SaplingElement | An element node on a sapling tree.
  SaplingNode | This class represents a sapling node.
  SaplingProcessingInstruction | A processing-instruction node in a sapling tree
  Saplings | This is a non-instantiable class holding a number of convenience methods for creating sapling nodes of different kinds.
  SaplingText |