*/
final Iterator handleAttributes(Element E, NameSpaceSymbTable ns)
throws CanonicalizationException {
// result will contain the attrs which have to be outputted
SortedSet result = this.result;
result.clear();
NamedNodeMap attrs = null;
int attrsLength = 0;
if (E.hasAttributes()) {
attrs = E.getAttributes();
attrsLength = attrs.getLength();