Here is the basic xpath syntax as taken from w3schools.com
Selecting Nodes 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 child nodes of the named node | | / | 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 | Examples In the table below we have listed some path expressions and the result of the expressions: | Path Expression | Result | | bookstore | Selects all the child nodes of the bookstore element | | /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 Predicates are used to find a specific node or a node that contains a specific value. Predicates are always embedded in square brackets. Examples 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: IE5 and later has implemented that [0] should be the first node, but according to the W3C standard it should have been [1]!! | | /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='eng'] | Selects all the title elements that have an attribute named lang with a value of 'eng' | | /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 |
Selecting Unknown Nodes XPath wildcards can be used to select unknown XML elements. | Wildcard | Description | | * | Matches any element node | | @* | Matches any attribute node | | node() | Matches any node of any kind | Examples In the table below we have listed some path expressions and the result of the expressions: | Path Expression | Result | | /bookstore/* | Selects all the child nodes of the bookstore element | | //* | Selects all elements in the document | | //title[@*] | Selects all title elements which have any attribute |
Selecting Several Paths By using the | operator in an XPath expression you can select several paths. Examples 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 |
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