I'm reading a simple xml file using matlab's xmlread internal function.

```xml
<root>
    <ref>
        <requestor>John Doe</requestor>
        <project>X</project>
    </ref>
</root>

```

But when I call getChildren() of the `ref` element, it's telling me that it has **5** children.

**It works fine IF** I put all the XML in **ONE line**. Matlab tells me that `ref` element has **2** children.

It doesn't seem to like the spaces between elements. 

Even if I run *Canonicalize* in oXygen XML editor, I still get the same results. Because Canonicalize still leaves spaces.

Matlab uses java and xerces for xml stuff.

Question:
=========

What can I do so that I can keep my xml file in human readable format (not all in one line) but still have matlab correctly parse it?

Code Update:
============

```
filename='example01.xml';
docNode = xmlread(filename);
rootNode = docNode.getDocumentElement;
entries = rootNode.getChildNodes;
nEnt = entries.getLength

```