• Chapter 1: Getting Started with Stylus Studio®
• Chapter 2: Editing and Querying XML
• Chapter 3: Converting Non-XML Files to XML
• Chapter 4: Working with XSLT
• Chapter 5: Creating XSLT Using the XSLT Mapper
• Chapter 6: Debugging Stylesheets
• Chapter 7: Defining XML Schemas
• Chapter 8: Defining Document Type Definitions
• Chapter 9: Writing XPath Expressions
  • About the XPath Processor
    • Where You Can Specify Queries
    • About XPath
    • Benefits of XPath
    • Internationalization
    • Restrictions on Queries
  • Sample Data for Examples and Testing
  • Getting Started with Queries
  • Specifying the Nodes to Evaluate
  • Handling Strings and Text
  • Specifying Boolean Expressions and Functions
  • Specifying Number Operations and Functions
  • Comparing Values
  • Finding a Particular Node
  • Obtaining a Union
  • Obtaining Information About a Node or a Node Set
  • Using XPath Expressions in Stylesheets
  • Accessing Other Documents During Query Execution
  • XPath Quick Reference
• Chapter 10: Working with XQuery in Stylus Studio
• Chapter 11: Composing Web Service Calls
• Chapter 12: Accessing Relational Data as XML
• Chapter 13: Integrating with Third-Party File Systems
• Chapter 14: Extending Stylus Studio
• Chapter 15: Stylus Studio GUI Reference

Home > Online Product Documentation > Table of Contents > Restrictions on Queries

Restrictions on Queries

XPath is a language for selecting existing XML data; it does not perform manipulation (like sorting) or construction of different XML structures. To perform such operations, you need to use the language that is hosting XPath, XSLT or XQuery, for example.

You cannot query non-XML data. If you query a document that does not contain XML-formatted data, Stylus Studio displays an error message that informs you that the queried text is not XML.