xpath

#xpath
Table of Contents
About 1

Chapter 1: Getting started with xpath 2

Remarks 2

Versions 2

Examples 2

Sample XML (without namespaces) 2

Select text 2

Select an element 3

Common HTML Operations 3

Testing Xpaths in browser console 4

Chapter 2: Check if a node is present 5

Syntax 5

Remarks 5

Examples 5

Does the animal have tusks? 5

Does the animal have horns? 5

Are there plants in the house? 6

Chapter 3: Check if a node's text is empty 7

Syntax 7

Remarks 7

Examples 7

Check if Deborah has a master and its text value is not empty 7

Check if Dobby has a master and its text value is not empty 7

Chapter 4: Find nodes that have a specific attribute 9

Syntax 9

Parameters 9

Remarks 9

Examples 9

Find nodes with a specific attribute 9

Find nodes with a specific attribute value 10

 Find nodes by substring matching of an attribute's value 10

Find nodes by substring matching of an attribute's value (case-insensitive) 11

Find nodes by substring matching the start of an attribute's value 11

Find nodes by substring matching the end of an attribute's value 12

Chapter 5: Finding elements containing specific attributes 13

Examples 13

Find all elements with a certain attribute 13

Find all elements with a certain attribute value 13

Chapter 6: Finding elements containing specific text 14

Examples 14

Find all elements with certain text 14

Chapter 7: Get nodes relative to the current node 16

Syntax 16

Parameters 16

Remarks 17

Examples 17

Find My ancestors 17

Find My Parent 17

Find my grand father 18

Find my brother 18

Get all avatars before Parashurama 19

Get all avatars after Parashurama 19

Get all avatars except the current one (Parusharama) 20

Get all the details (child nodes) of House 20

Get all rooms (immediate children named Room) in House 21

Get all rooms (irrespective of the position) in House 21

Chapter 8: Get the count of nodes 23

Syntax 23

Parameters 23

Remarks 23

Examples 23

How many children does Goku have? 23

 How many plants are there in the house? 23

Chapter 9: Location paths and axes 25

Remarks 25

Examples 25

Traversing child elements 25

Traversing all descendants 25

Traversing ancestors 26

The "self" axis 26

Traversing following and preceding nodes 26

Traversing attribute and namespace nodes 27

Chapter 10: Namespaces 28

Remarks 28

Examples 28

Namespace aware functions 28

Chapter 11: Select nodes based on their children 29

Examples 29

Select nodes based on child count 29

Select nodes based on specific child node 30

Chapter 12: Select nodes with names equal to or containing some string 31

Syntax 31

Parameters 31

Remarks 31

Examples 31

Search for nodes with name as Light, Device or Sensor 31

Search for nodes that has name that contains Light 32

Search for nodes that has name that starts with Star 32

Search for nodes that has name that ends with Ball 33

Search for nodes with name light (case insensitive) 34

Credits 36
About
You can share this PDF with anyone you feel could benefit from it, downloaded the latest version
from: xpath

It is an unofficial and free xpath ebook created for educational purposes. All the content is
extracted from Stack Overflow Documentation, which is written by many hardworking individuals at
Stack Overflow. It is neither affiliated with Stack Overflow nor official xpath.

The content is released under Creative Commons BY-SA, and the list of contributors to each
chapter are provided in the credits section at the end of this book. Images may be copyright of
their respective owners unless otherwise specified. All trademarks and registered trademarks are
the property of their respective company owners.

Use the content presented in this book at your own risk; it is not guaranteed to be correct nor
accurate, please send your feedback and corrections to [email protected]

https://riptutorial.com/ 1
Chapter 1: Getting started with xpath
Remarks
XPath is a language for addressing parts of an XML document.

It is used in XSLT and is a subset of XQuery. Libraries are available for most other programming
languages as well.

XPath is an international standard with specifications published by W3C:

• XPath 1.0: XML Path Language (XPath), Version 1.0

• XPath 2.0: XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 (Second Edition)
• XPath 3.0: XML Path Language (XPath) 3.0

Versions

Version Release Date

1.0 1999-12-16

2.0 2007-01-23

3.0 2014-04-08

3.1 (W3C Candidate Recommendation) 2015-12-17

Examples
Sample XML (without namespaces)

Here is some sample XML against which example XPaths can be written:

<r>
<e a="1"/>
<f a="2" b="1">Text 1</f>
<f/>
<g>
<i c="2">Text 2</i>
Text 3
<j>Text 4</j>
</g>
</r>

Select text

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For the sample XML (without namespaces):

This XPath,

/r/f/text()

will select the text node with this string value:

"Text 1"

And this XPath,

string(/r/f)

will return the string value of f, which is also:

"Text 1"

Select an element

For the sample XML (without namespaces):

This XPath,

/r/e

will select this element:

<e a="1"/>

Common HTML Operations

If the input HTML DOM is

<html>
<body>
<a>link</a>
<div class='container' id='divone'>
<p class='common' id='enclosedone'>Element One</p>
<p class='common' id='enclosedtwo'>Element Two</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Find an element with a specific id in the entire page

//*[@id='divone'] # Returns <div class='container' id='divone'>

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Find an element with a specific id in a particular path

/html/body/div/p[@id='enclosedone'] # Returns <p class='common' id='enclosedone'>Element

One</p>

Select an element with a particular id & class

//p[@id='enclosedone' and @class='common'] # Returns <p class='common'

id='enclosedone'>Element One</p>

Select the text of a particular element

//*[@id='enclosedone']/text() # Returns Element One

Testing Xpaths in browser console

A quick way to test your xpath is in your browser developer tool console.

Format is

$x('//insert xpath here')

$ - specifies it is a selector.

x - specifies it is using xpaths

Example:

$x("//button[text() ='Submit']")

When this command is entered it will return all occurrences of elements that are buttons with text
equal to Submit.

Read Getting started with xpath online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/883/getting-started-with-

xpath

https://riptutorial.com/ 4
Chapter 2: Check if a node is present
Syntax
• boolean(path_to_node)

Remarks
Boolean function has other uses

1. Check if a string is empty

2. Check if the argument is not a number (NaN) or is 0

Examples
Does the animal have tusks?

XML

<Animal>
<legs>4</legs>
<eyes>2</eyes>
<horns>2</horns>
<tail>1</tail>
</Animal>

XPATH

boolean(/Animal/tusks)

OUTPUT

false

Does the animal have horns?

XPATH

<Animal>
<legs>4</legs>
<eyes>2</eyes>
<horns>2</horns>
<tail>1</tail>
</Animal>

XPATH

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 boolean(/Animal/horns)

OUTPUT

true

Are there plants in the house?

XML

<House>
<LivingRoom>
<plant name="rose"/>
</LivingRoom>
<TerraceGarden>
<plant name="passion fruit"/>
<plant name="lily"/>
<plant name="golden duranta"/>
</TerraceGarden>
</House>

XPATH

boolean(/House//plant)

OUTPUT

true

Read Check if a node is present online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/7432/check-if-a-node-is-

present

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Chapter 3: Check if a node's text is empty
Syntax
• boolean(path_to_node/text())
• string(path_to_node) != ''

Remarks
Boolean function has other uses

1. Check if a node is present

2. Check if the argument is not a number (NaN) or is 0

String function is used to return the string value of a node.

Examples
Check if Deborah has a master and its text value is not empty

XML

<Deborah>
<address>Dark world</address>
<master>Babadi</master>
<ID>#0</ID>
<colour>red</colour>
<side>evil</side>
</Deborah>

XPATH

boolean(/Deborah/master/text())

OR

string(/Deborah/master) != ''

OUTPUT

true

Check if Dobby has a master and its text value is not empty

XML

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 <Dobby>
<address>Hogwartz</address>
<master></master>
<colour>wheatish</colour>
<side>all good</side>
</Dobby>

XPATH

boolean(/Dobby/master/text())

OR

string(/Dobby/master) != ''

OUTPUT

false

Read Check if a node's text is empty online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/7445/check-if-a-

node-s-text-is-empty

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Chapter 4: Find nodes that have a specific
attribute
Syntax
1. Inside a specific node
• /path to/element[@attribute_name]
2. Anywhere in the document
• //*[@attribute_name]
3. Inside a specific node with some value
• /path to/element[@attribute_name='search value']
• /path to/element[@attribute_name="search value"]
4. Anywhere in the document with some value
• //*[@attribute_name='search string']
• //*[@attribute_name="search string"]

Parameters

Selector function

@attribute_name It selects the attribute value for a node, if present

Remarks
Using [@attribute_name] we can select nodes that have the attribute irrespective of the value.

We can use any of the functions or combination of the functions such as starts-with and
lowercase, for example, with this selector to suit our needs.

Examples
Find nodes with a specific attribute

XML

<Galaxy>
<name>Milky Way</name>
<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet"/>
<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star"/>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

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 /Galaxy/*[@name]

or

//*[@name]

OUTPUT

<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet" />

<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star" />

Find nodes with a specific attribute value

XML

<Galaxy>
<name>Milky Way</name>
<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet"/>
<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star"/>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

/Galaxy/*[@name='Sun']

or

//*[@name='Sun']

OUTPUT

<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star" />

Find nodes by substring matching of an attribute's value

XML

<Galaxy>
<name>Milky Way</name>
<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet"/>
<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star"/>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

/Galaxy/*[contains(@name,'Ear')]

or

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 //*[contains(@name,'Ear')]

Double quotes can also be used in place of single quotes:

/Galaxy/*[contains(@name, "Ear")]

OUTPUT

<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet" />

Find nodes by substring matching of an attribute's value (case-insensitive)

XML

<Galaxy>
<name>Milky Way</name>
<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet"/>
<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star"/>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

/Galaxy/*[contains(lower-case(@name),'ear')]

or

//*[contains(lower-case(@name),'ear')]

or, with the string in double quotes:

//*[contains(lower-case(@name), "ear")]

OUTPUT

<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet" />

Find nodes by substring matching the start of an attribute's value

XML

<Galaxy>
<name>Milky Way</name>
<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet"/>
<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star"/>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

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 /Galaxy/*[starts-with(lower-case(@name),'ear')]

or

//*[starts-with(lower-case(@name),'ear')]

OUTPUT

<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet" />

Find nodes by substring matching the end of an attribute's value

XML

<Galaxy>
<name>Milky Way</name>
<CelestialObject name="Earth" type="planet"/>
<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star"/>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

/Galaxy/*[ends-with(lower-case(@type),'tar')]

or

//*[ends-with(lower-case(@type),'tar')]

OUTPUT

<CelestialObject name="Sun" type="star" />

Read Find nodes that have a specific attribute online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/3096/find-

nodes-that-have-a-specific-attribute

https://riptutorial.com/ 12
Chapter 5: Finding elements containing
specific attributes
Examples
Find all elements with a certain attribute

Imagine the following XML:

<root>
<element foobar="hello_world" />
<element example="this is one!" />
</root>

/root/element[@foobar]

and will return the <element foobar="hello_world" /> element.

Find all elements with a certain attribute value

Imagine the following XML:

<root>
<element foobar="hello_world" />
<element example="this is one!" />
</root>

The following XPath expression:

/root/element[@foobar = 'hello_world']

will return the <element foobar="hello_world" /> element.

double quotes can also be used:

/root/element[@foobar="hello_world"]

Read Finding elements containing specific attributes online:

https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/6488/finding-elements-containing-specific-attributes

https://riptutorial.com/ 13
Chapter 6: Finding elements containing
specific text
Examples
Find all elements with certain text

Imagine the following XML:

<root>
<element>hello</element>
<another>
hello
</another>
<example>Hello, <nested> I am an example </nested>.</example>
</root>

The following XPath expression:

//*[text() = 'hello']

will return the <element>hello</element> element, but not the <another> element. This is because the
<another> element contains whitespace surrounding the hello text.

To retrieve both <element> and <another>, one could use:

//*[normalize-space(text()) = 'hello']

or

//*[normalize-space() = 'hello']

which will trim the surrounding whitespace before doing the comparison. Here we can see that the
text() node specifier is optional when using normalize-space.

To find an element containing specific text, you can use the contains function. The following
expression will return the <example> element:

//example[contains(text(), 'Hello')]

If you want to find text that spans multiple children/text nodes, then you can use . instead of text()
. . refers to the entire text content of the element and it's children.

//example[. = 'Hello, I am an example .']

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To see the multiple text nodes, you can use:

//example//text()

which will return:

• "Hello, "
• " I am an example "
• "."

And to more clearly see the entire text content of an element, one can use the string function:

string(//example[1])

or just

string(//example)

Hello, I am an example .

The latter works because, if a node-set is passed into functions like string, XPath 1.0 just looks at
the first node (in document order) in that node-set, and ignores the rest.

so:

string(/root/*)

would return:

hello

Read Finding elements containing specific text online:

https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/1903/finding-elements-containing-specific-text

https://riptutorial.com/ 15
Chapter 7: Get nodes relative to the current
node
Syntax
1. All ancestors of a node
• /path to the node/ancestor::node()
2. A specific ancestor of a node
• /path to the node/ancestor::ancestor_name
3. Parent of a node
• /path to the node/parent::node()
4. Following siblings of a node
• /path to the node/following-sibling::node()
5. A specific sibling following a node
• /path to the node/following-sibling::sibling_name
6. Preceding siblings of a node
• /path to the node/preceding-sibling::node()
7. A specific sibling preceding a node
• /path to the node/preceding-sibling::sibling_name
8. All immediate child nodes of a node
• /path to the node/child::node()
9. A specific immediate child node of a node
• /path to the node/child::chid_name
10. All the descendants of a node
• /path to the node/descendant::node()
11. All specific descendants of a node
• /path the to node/descendant::descendant_name

Parameters

Axis selects

ancestor all the ancestor nodes

parent parent node

following-sibling siblings following the node

preceding-sibling siblings preceding the node

child immediate children

descendant all the descendant irrespective of the nesting level

https://riptutorial.com/ 16
Remarks
These axes can be used in combination with other functions to suit our needs.

Examples
Find My ancestors

XML

<GrandFather name="Bardock" gender="male" spouse="Gine">

<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">
<Me name="Gohan" gender="male"/>
<brother name="Goten" gender="male"/>
</Dad>
</GrandFather>

XPATH

//Me/ancestor::node()

OUTPUT

<GrandFather name="Bardock" gender="male" spouse="Gine">

<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">
<Me name="Gohan" gender="male" />
<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />
</Dad>
</GrandFather>
<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">
<Me name="Gohan" gender="male" />
<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />
</Dad>

Find My Parent

XML

<GrandFather name="Bardock" gender="male" spouse="Gine">

<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">
<Me name="Gohan" gender="male"/>
<brother name="Goten" gender="male"/>
</Dad>
</GrandFather>

XPATH

//Me/ancestor::Dad

or

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 //Me/parent::node()

OUTPUT

<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">

<Me name="Gohan" gender="male" />
<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />
</Dad>

Find my grand father

XML

<GrandFather name="Bardock" gender="male" spouse="Gine">

<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">
<Me name="Gohan" gender="male" />
<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />
</Dad>
</GrandFather>

XPATH

//Me/ancestor::GrandFather

or

//Me/parent::node()/parent::node()

OUTPUT

<GrandFather name="Bardock" gender="male" spouse="Gine">

<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">
<Me name="Gohan" gender="male" />
<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />
</Dad>
</GrandFather>

Find my brother

XML

<GrandFather name="Bardock" gender="male" spouse="Gine">

<Dad name="Goku" gender="male" spouse="Chi Chi">
<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />
<Me name="Gohan" gender="male" />
<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />
</Dad>
</GrandFather>

XPATH

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 //Me/following-sibling::brother

OUTPUT

<brother name="Goten" gender="male" />

Get all avatars before Parashurama

XML

<Dashavatar>
<Avatar name="Matsya"/>
<Avatar name="Kurma"/>
<Avatar name="Varaha"/>
<Avatar name="Narasimha"/>
<Avatar name="Vamana"/>
<Avatar name="Balabhadra"/>
<Avatar name="Parashurama"/>
<Avatar name="Rama"/>
<Avatar name="Krishna"/>
<Avatar name="Kalki"/>
</Dashavatar>

XPATH

//Avatar[@name='Parashurama']/preceding-sibling::node()

OUTPUT

<Avatar name="Matsya"/>
<Avatar name="Kurma"/>
<Avatar name="Varaha"/>
<Avatar name="Narasimha"/>
<Avatar name="Vamana"/>
<Avatar name="Balabhadra"/>

Get all avatars after Parashurama

XML

<Dashavatar>
<Avatar name="Matsya"/>
<Avatar name="Kurma"/>
<Avatar name="Varaha"/>
<Avatar name="Narasimha"/>
<Avatar name="Vamana"/>
<Avatar name="Balabhadra"/>
<Avatar name="Parashurama"/>
<Avatar name="Rama"/>
<Avatar name="Krishna"/>
<Avatar name="Kalki"/>
</Dashavatar>

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XPATH

//Avatar[@name='Parashurama']/following-sibling::node()

OUTPUT

<Avatar name="Rama" />

<Avatar name="Krishna" />
<Avatar name="Kalki" />

Get all avatars except the current one (Parusharama)

XML

<Dashavatar>
<Avatar name="Matsya"/>
<Avatar name="Kurma"/>
<Avatar name="Varaha"/>
<Avatar name="Narasimha"/>
<Avatar name="Vamana"/>
<Avatar name="Balabhadra"/>
<Avatar name="Parashurama"/>
<Avatar name="Rama"/>
<Avatar name="Krishna"/>
<Avatar name="Kalki"/>
</Dashavatar>

XPATH

//Avatar[@name='Parashurama']/following-sibling::Avatar |
//Avatar[@name='Parashurama']/preceding-sibling::Avatar

OUTPUT

<Avatar name="Matsya" />

<Avatar name="Kurma" />
<Avatar name="Varaha" />
<Avatar name="Narasimha" />
<Avatar name="Vamana" />
<Avatar name="Balabhadra" />
<Avatar name="Rama" />
<Avatar name="Krishna" />
<Avatar name="Kalki" />

Get all the details (child nodes) of House

XML

<House>
<Rooms>10</Rooms>
<People>4</People>
<TVs>4</TVs>

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 <Floors>2</Floors>
</House>

XPATH

/House/child::node()

OUTPUT

<Rooms>10</Rooms>
<People>4</People>
<TVs>4</TVs>
<Floors>2</Floors>

Get all rooms (immediate children named Room) in House

XML

<House>
<numRooms>4</numRooms>
<Room name="living"/>
<Room name="master bedroom"/>
<Room name="kids' bedroom"/>
<Room name="kitchen"/>
</House>

XPATH

/House/child::Room

or

/House/*[local-name()='Room']

OUTPUT

<Room name="living" />

<Room name="master bedroom" />
<Room name="kids' bedroom" />
<Room name="kitchen" />

Get all rooms (irrespective of the position) in House

XML

<House>
<numRooms>4</numRooms>
<Floor number="1">
<Room name="living"/>
<Room name="kitchen"/>

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 </Floor>
<Floor number="2">
<Room name="master bedroom"/>
<Room name="kids' bedroom"/>
</Floor>
</House>

XPATH

/House/descendant::Room

OUTPUT

<Room name="living" />

<Room name="kitchen" />
<Room name="master bedroom" />
<Room name="kids' bedroom" />

Read Get nodes relative to the current node online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/6495/get-

nodes-relative-to-the-current-node

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Chapter 8: Get the count of nodes
Syntax
• count(node-set)

Parameters

function returns

count total number of nodes in the node set

Remarks
We can use this in combination of other functions and axes to suit our needs.

Examples
How many children does Goku have?

XML

<Goku>
<child name="Gohan"/>
<child name="Goten"/>
</Goku>

XPATH

count(/Goku/child)

OUTPUT

2.0

How many plants are there in the house?

XML

<House>
<LivingRoom>
<plant name="rose"/>
</LivingRoom>
<TerraceGarden>

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 <plant name="passion fruit"/>
<plant name="lily"/>
<plant name="golden duranta"/>
</TerraceGarden>
</House>

XPATH

count(/House//plant)

OUTPUT

4.0

Read Get the count of nodes online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/4463/get-the-count-of-nodes

https://riptutorial.com/ 24
Chapter 9: Location paths and axes
Remarks
An XPath location path is a series of location steps separated by a / character:

step1/step2/step3

A location step contains an axis, a node test, and an optional list of predicates. The axis and the
node test are separated by two colon characters ::. The predicates are enclosed in square
brackets:

axis::nodeTest[predicate1][predicate2]

The evaluation of a location path starts with a node set containing the context node given by the
context of the expression, or the root node, if the location path starts with a /. At each step, each
node N in the original node set is replaced with the set of nodes that

• can be reached from N following the given axis,

• matches the node test, and
• matches all predicates.

The result of a location path expression is the final node set obtained after processing all location
steps.

Examples
Traversing child elements

Traversing from the root node to a descendant element using the child axis:

/child::html/child::body/child::div/child::span

Since the child axis is the default axis, this can be abbreviated to:

/html/body/div/span

Traversing all descendants

The descendant and descendant-or-self axes can be used to find all descendant elements of a node
at any depth. In contrast, the child axis only traverses immediate children.

/child::html/descendant::span
/child::html/descendant-or-self::*

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The double slash // is a shortcut for /descendant-or-self::node()/. So the following expressions
are equivalent:

table//td
child::table/descendant-or-self::node()/child::td
child::table/descendant::td
table/descendant::td

Traversing ancestors

The parent axis contains only the parent of a node. The following expression selects the html
element by taking a detour over the body element:

/child::html/child::body/parent::html

.. is a shortcut for parent::node()

The ancestor and ancestor-or-self axes traverse all ancestors of a node. The following expression
returns all div elements that are ancestors of the context node:

ancestor::div

The "self" axis

The self axis only contains the context node itself. The expression . is a shortcut for self::node()
and always matches the context node. The . shortcut is useful for enumerating descendants of the
context node. The following expressions are equivalent:

.//span
self::node()/descendant-or-self::node()/child::span
descendant::span

The self axis can be helpful in XPath 1.0 predicates. For example, to select all h1, h2, and h3
children of the context node:

*[self::h1 or self::h2 or self::h3]

Traversing following and preceding nodes

The following-sibling and preceding-sibling axes contain the siblings before or after the context
node, and the following and preceding axes contain all nodes in the document before or after the
context node, but:

• None of these axes contain attribute or namespace nodes.

• The following axis doesn't contain any descendants.
• The preceding axis doesn't contain any ancestors.

Examples:

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 following::span[1]
following-sibling::*[last()]

Traversing attribute and namespace nodes

The attribute and namespace axes contain all attribute and namespace nodes of an element. The
shortcut @ stands for attribute::, so the following are equivalent:

child::div/attribute::class
div/@class

Read Location paths and axes online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/6171/location-paths-and-

axes

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Chapter 10: Namespaces
Remarks
XPath 1.0 doesn't have the concept of a default namespace.

Also, the namespace prefixes defined in the original XML document do not affect XPath -
namespace prefixes have to be explicitly registered with the XPath provider, otherwise prefixes
can't be used at all in the XPath expression.

Examples
Namespace aware functions

<root xmlns="http://test/">
<element xmlns:example="http://foobar/">
<example:hello_world attribute="another example" />
</element>
</root>

The expression /root will return nothing, because there is no non-namespaced element called root
at the root level of the document. However, The following will return the <root
xmlns="http://test/"> element.

/*[namespace-uri() = 'http://test/' and local-name() = 'root']

Read Namespaces online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/2324/namespaces

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Chapter 11: Select nodes based on their
children
Examples
Select nodes based on child count

Sample XML

<Students>
<Student>
<Name>
<First>Ashley</First>
<Last>Smith</Last>
</Name>
<Grades>
<Exam1>A</Exam1>
<Exam2>B</Exam2>
<Final>A</Final>
</Grades>
</Student>
<Student>
<Name>
<First>Bill</First>
<Last>Edwards</Last>
</Name>
<Grades>
<Exam1>A</Exam1>
</Grades>
</Student>
</Students>

XPath

Select all students that have at least 2 grades recorded

//Student[count(./Grades/*) > 1]

Output

<Student>
<Name>
<First>Ashley</First>
<Last>Smith</Last>
</Name>
<Grades>
<Exam1>A</Exam1>
<Exam2>B</Exam2>
<Final>A</Final>
</Grades>
</Student>

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Select nodes based on specific child node

Sample XML

<Students>
<Student>
<Name>
<First>Ashley</First>
<Last>Smith</Last>
</Name>
<Grades>
<Exam1>A</Exam1>
<Exam2>B</Exam2>
<Final>A</Final>
</Grades>
</Student>
<Student>
<Name>
<First>Bill</First>
<Last>Edwards</Last>
</Name>
<Grades>
<Exam1>A</Exam1>
</Grades>
</Student>
</Students>

XPath

Select all students that have a score for Exam2 recorded

//Student[./Grades/Exam2]

or

//Student[.//Exam2]

Output

<Student>
<Name>
<First>Ashley</First>
<Last>Smith</Last>
</Name>
<Grades>
<Exam1>A</Exam1>
<Exam2>B</Exam2>
<Final>A</Final>
</Grades>
</Student>

Read Select nodes based on their children online: https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/6504/select-

nodes-based-on-their-children

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Chapter 12: Select nodes with names equal to
or containing some string
Syntax
1. Inside a specific node:

{path-to-parent}/name()='search string']

2. Anywhere in the document:

//*[name()='search string']

Parameters

function return value

local-name() the node's name without prefix

Remarks
local-name() result does not include prefix (lookup name() XPATH function for it)

Examples
Search for nodes with name as Light, Device or Sensor

XML

<Galaxy>
<Light>sun</Light>
<Device>satellite</Device>
<Sensor>human</Sensor>
<Name>Milky Way</Name>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

/Galaxy/*[local-name()='Light' or local-name()='Device' or local-name()='Sensor']

or

//*[local-name()='Light' or local-name()='Device' or local-name()='Sensor']

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OUTPUT

<Light>sun</Light>
<Device>satellite</Device>
<Sensor>human</Sensor>

Search for nodes that has name that contains Light

XML

<Data>
<BioLight>
<name>Firefly</name>
<model>Insect</model>
</BioLight>
<ArtificialLight>
<name>Fire</name>
<model>Natural element</model>
<source>flint</source>
</ArtificialLight>
<SolarLight>
<name>Sun</name>
<model>Star</model>
<source>helium</source>
</SolarLight>
</Data>

XPATH

/Data/*[contains(local-name(),"Light")]

or

//*[contains(local-name(),"Light")]

OUTPUT

<BioLight>
<name>Firefly</name>
<model>Insect</model>
</BioLight>
<ArtificialLight>
<name>Fire</name>
<model>Natural element</model>
<source>flint</source>
</ArtificialLight>
<SolarLight>
<name>Sun</name>
<model>Star</model>
<source>helium</source>
</SolarLight>

Search for nodes that has name that starts with Star

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XML

<College>
<FootBall>
<Members>20</Members>
<Coach>Archie Theron</Coach>
<Name>Wild cats</Name>
<StarFootballer>David Perry</StarFootballer>
</FootBall>
<Academics>
<Members>100</Members>
<Teacher>Tim Jose</Teacher>
<Class>VII</Class>
<StarPerformer>Lindsay Rowen</StarPerformer>
</Academics>
</College>

XPATH

/College/*/*[starts-with(local-name(),"Star")]

or

//*[starts-with(local-name(),"Star")]

OUTPUT

<StarFootballer>David Perry</StarFootballer>
<StarPerformer>Lindsay Rowen</StarPerformer>

Search for nodes that has name that ends with Ball

XML

<College>
<FootBall>
<Members>20</Members>
<Coach>Archie Theron</Coach>
<Name>Wild cats</Name>
<StarPlayer>David Perry</StarPlayer>
</FootBall>
<VolleyBall>
<Members>24</Members>
<Coach>Tim Jose</Coach>
<Name>Avengers</Name>
<StarPlayer>Lindsay Rowen</StarPlayer>
</VolleyBall>
<FoosBall>
<Members>22</Members>
<Coach>Rahul Mehra</Coach>
<Name>Playerz</Name>
<StarPlayer>Amanda Ren</StarPlayer>
</FoosBall>
</College>

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XPATH

/College/*[ends-with(local-name(),"Ball")]

or

//*[ends-with(local-name(),"Ball")]

OUTPUT

<FootBall>
<Members>20</Members>
<Coach>Archie Theron</Coach>
<Name>Wild cats</Name>
<StarPlayer>David Perry</StarPlayer>
</FootBall>
<VolleyBall>
<Members>24</Members>
<Coach>Tim Jose</Coach>
<Name>Avengers</Name>
<StarPlayer>Lindsay Rowen</StarPlayer>
</VolleyBall>
<FoosBall>
<Members>22</Members>
<Coach>Rahul Mehra</Coach>
<Name>Playerz</Name>
<StarPlayer>Amanda Ren</StarPlayer>
</FoosBall>

Search for nodes with name light (case insensitive)

XML

<Galaxy>
<Light>sun</Light>
<Device>satellite</Device>
<Sensor>human</Sensor>
<Name>Milky Way</Name>
</Galaxy>

XPATH

/Galaxy/*[lower-case(local-name())="light"]

or

//*[lower-case(local-name())="light"]

OUTPUT

<Light>sun</Light>

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Read Select nodes with names equal to or containing some string online:
https://riptutorial.com/xpath/topic/3095/select-nodes-with-names-equal-to-or-containing-some-
string

https://riptutorial.com/ 35
Credits
S.
Chapters Contributors
No

Getting started with

1 Community, hielsnoppe, kjhughes, Vinay, Wolfgang Schindler
xpath

Check if a node is
2 suchitra nair
present

Check if a node's
3 suchitra nair
text is empty

Find nodes that have

4 Keith Hall, miken32, suchitra nair
a specific attribute

Finding elements
5 containing specific Keith Hall
attributes

Finding elements
6 containing specific Keith Hall
text

Get nodes relative to

7 suchitra nair
the current node

Get the count of

8 suchitra nair
nodes

Location paths and

9 nwellnhof
axes

10 Namespaces 4444, Keith Hall

Select nodes based

11 Matthew
on their children

Select nodes with

names equal to or
12 Dimitre Novatchev, suchitra nair
containing some
string

https://riptutorial.com/ 36