class REXML::Elements

elements.delete_all('//book') # => []
elements.size # => 0
deleted_elements.size # => 2
deleted_elements = elements.delete_all('//book')
elements.size # => 2
deleted_elements.size # => 2
deleted_elements = elements.delete_all('//book [@category="web"]')
elements.size # => 4
elements = d.root.elements
d = REXML::Document.new(xml_string)

returns the array of removed elements, if any, else +nil+.
Removes all elements found via the given +xpath+;

delete_all(xpath)
:call-seq:

def delete_all( xpath )
  rv = []
  XPath::each( @element, xpath) {|element|
    rv << element if element.kind_of? Element
  }
  rv.each do |element|
    @element.delete element
    element.remove
  end
  return rv
end