• 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
  • Using the XPath Query Editor
  • Sample Data for Examples and Practice
  • 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
    • XPath Functions Quick Reference
    • XPath Syntax Quick Reference
      • Axes
      • Node Tests
      • Filters
      • Location Steps
      • XPath Expression
    • XPath Abbreviations 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: Building XML Pipelines
• Chapter 14: Publishing XML Data
• Chapter 15: Integrating with Third-Party File Systems
• Chapter 16: Extending Stylus Studio
• Chapter 17: The Stylus Studio Java API
• Chapter 18: Stylus Studio GUI Reference

Home > Online Product Documentation > Table of Contents > XPath Syntax Quick Reference

XPath Syntax Quick Reference

This topic provides a quick reference for XPath expression syntax.

Axes

XPath provides the following axes:

Node Tests

XPath provides the following node tests:

Filters

A filter specifies a constraint on a node set with respect to an axis to produce a new node set.

Location Steps

A location step has the following format:

AxisSpecifier
              ::NodeTest
              [Filter
              ][Filter
              ]...
               

            

XPath Expression

An XPath expression has one of the following formats:

LocationStep[/LocationStep]...
               
FunctionCall()[Filter]/LocationStep[/LocationStep]...
               
(Expression)[Filter]/LocationStep[/LocationStep]...
               

            

A function call or an XPath expression in parentheses can appear only at the very beginning of an XPath expression. An expression in parentheses always returns a node set. Any function that appears at the beginning of an XPath location step expression must return a node set.