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C # tutorial
XPath uses path expressions to select nodes or node-sets in an XML document. The node is selected by following a path or steps
We will use the following XML document in the examples below.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<bookstore>
<book>
<title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
<price>29.99</price>
</book>
<book>
<title lang="en">Learning XML</title>
<price>39.95</price>
</book>
</bookstore>
XPath uses path expressions to select nodes in an XML document. The node is selected by following a path or steps. The most useful path expressions are listed below:
Expression | Description |
---|---|
nodename | Selects all nodes with the name "nodename" |
/ | Selects from the root node |
// | Selects nodes in the document from the current node that match the selection no matter where they are |
. | Selects the current node |
.. | Selects the parent of the current node |
@ | Selects attributes |
In the table below we have listed some path expressions and the result of the expressions:
Path Expression | Result |
---|---|
bookstore | Selects all nodes with the name "bookstore" |
/bookstore | Selects the root element bookstore Note: If the path starts with a slash ( / ) it always represents an absolute path to an element! |
bookstore/book | Selects all book elements that are children of bookstore |
//book | Selects all book elements no matter where they are in the document |
bookstore//book | Selects all book elements that are descendant of the bookstore element, no matter where they are under the bookstore element |
//@lang | Selects all attributes that are named lang |
Predicates are used to find a specific node or a node that contains a specific value.
Predicates are always embedded in square brackets.
In the table below we have listed some path expressions with predicates and the result of the expressions:
Path Expression | Result |
---|---|
/bookstore/book[1] | Selects the first book element that is the child of the bookstore element.
Note: In IE 5,6,7,8,9 first node is[0], but according to W3C, it is [1]. To solve this problem in IE, set the SelectionLanguage to XPath: In JavaScript: xml.setProperty("SelectionLanguage","XPath"); |
/bookstore/book[last()] | Selects the last book element that is the child of the bookstore element |
/bookstore/book[last()-1] | Selects the last but one book element that is the child of the bookstore element |
/bookstore/book[position()<3] | Selects the first two book elements that are children of the bookstore element |
//title[@lang] | Selects all the title elements that have an attribute named lang |
//title[@lang='en'] | Selects all the title elements that have a "lang" attribute with a value of "en" |
/bookstore/book[price>35.00] | Selects all the book elements of the bookstore element that have a price element with a value greater than 35.00 |
/bookstore/book[price>35.00]/title | Selects all the title elements of the book elements of the bookstore element that have a price element with a value greater than 35.00 |
XPath wildcards can be used to select unknown XML nodes.
Wildcard | Description |
---|---|
* | Matches any element node |
@* | Matches any attribute node |
node() | Matches any node of any kind |
In the table below we have listed some path expressions and the result of the expressions:
Path Expression | Result |
---|---|
/bookstore/* | Selects all the child element nodes of the bookstore element |
//* | Selects all elements in the document |
//title[@*] | Selects all title elements which have at least one attribute of any kind |
By using the | operator in an XPath expression you can select several paths.
In the table below we have listed some path expressions and the result of the expressions:
Path Expression | Result |
---|---|
//book/title | //book/price | Selects all the title AND price elements of all book elements |
//title | //price | Selects all the title AND price elements in the document |
/bookstore/book/title | //price | Selects all the title elements of the book element of the bookstore element AND all the price elements in the document |