XPath Axes
The XML Example Document
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 Axes
An axis represents a relationship to the context (current) node, and is used to locate nodes relative to that node on the tree.
| AxisName | Result |
|---|---|
| ancestor | Selects all ancestors (parent, grandparent, etc.) of the current node |
| ancestor-or-self | Selects all ancestors (parent, grandparent, etc.) of the current node and the current node itself |
| attribute | Selects all attributes of the current node |
| child | Selects all children of the current node |
| descendant | Selects all descendants (children, grandchildren, etc.) of the current node |
| descendant-or-self | Selects all descendants (children, grandchildren, etc.) of the current node and the current node itself |
| following | Selects everything in the document after the closing tag of the current node |
| following-sibling | Selects all siblings after the current node |
| namespace | Selects all namespace nodes of the current node |
| parent | Selects the parent of the current node |
| preceding | Selects all nodes that appear before the current node in the document, except ancestors, attribute nodes and namespace nodes |
| preceding-sibling | Selects all siblings before the current node |
| self | Selects the current node |
Location Path Expression
A location path can be absolute or relative.
An absolute location path starts with a slash ( / ) and a relative location path does not. In both cases the location path consists of one or more steps, each separated by a slash:
An absolute location path:
/step/step/...
A relative location path:
step/step/...
Each step is evaluated against the nodes in the current node-set.
A step consists of:
- an axis (defines the tree-relationship between the selected nodes and the current node)
- a node-test (identifies a node within an axis)
- zero or more predicates (to further refine the selected node-set)
The syntax for a location step is:
axisname::nodetest[predicate]
Examples
| Example | Result |
|---|---|
| child::book | Selects all book nodes that are children of the current node |
| attribute::lang | Selects the lang attribute of the current node |
| child::* | Selects all element children of the current node |
| attribute::* | Selects all attributes of the current node |
| child::text() | Selects all text node children of the current node |
| child::node() | Selects all children of the current node |
| descendant::book | Selects all book descendants of the current node |
| ancestor::book | Selects all book ancestors of the current node |
| ancestor-or-self::book | Selects all book ancestors of the current node - and the current as well if it is a book node |
| child::*/child::price | Selects all price grandchildren of the current node |
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