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XPath Abbreviations Quick Reference
XPath Abbreviations Quick Reference
Table 73 defines the abbreviations you can use in XPath expressions:
Abbreviation
|
Description
|
No axis is specified in a location step.
|
The
child axis is assumed. For example, the following two XPath expressions both return the
para children of
chapter children of the context node:
|
@
|
The
attribute axis. For example, the following two XPath expressions both return
para children of the context node that have
type attributes with a value of
warning :
|
//
|
The
descendant-or-self axis. For example, the following two XPath expressions both return all
para descendants of the context node:
However, it is important to note that the following two expressions are
not equivalent:
The first expression selects the first
para element that is a descendant of the context node. The second expression selects each
para descendant that is the first
para child of its parent.
|
.
|
A single dot is the abbreviation for
self::node() . This selects the context node. For example, the following two XPath expressions both return all
para descendants of the context node:
|
..
|
A double dot is the abbreviation for
parent::node() . This selects the parent of the context node. For example, the following two XPath expressions both return the
title children of the parent of the context node:
|
Table 73. XPath Abbreviations Quick Reference
Table 74 shows examples of abbreviations in XPath expressions
Example
|
Description
|
para
|
Selects the
para children of the context node
|
*
|
Selects all element children of the context node
|
node_test
|
Evaluates all children of the context node and returns those that test
true for the particular node_test
|
*/para
|
Selects all
para grandchildren of the context node
|
para[1]
|
Selects the first
para child of the context node
|
para[last()]
|
Selects the last
para child of the context node
|
/doc/chapter[5]/section[2]
|
Selects the second
section of the fifth
chapter of the
doc child of the context node
|
para[@type="warning"]
|
Selects
para children of the context node that have
type attributes with a value of
warning
|
para[@type="warning"][5]
|
Selects the fifth
para child of the context node that has a
type attribute with a value of
warning
|
para[5][@type="warning"]
|
Selects the fifth
para child of the context node if that child has a
type attribute with a value of
warning
|
chapter[title]
|
Selects the
chapter children of the context node that have one or more
title children
|
//para
|
Selects all
para descendants of the document root
|
chapter//para
|
Selects all
para descendants of
chapter children of the context node
|
//olist/item
|
Selects all
item elements that have
olist parents
|
.
|
Selects the context node
|
.//para
|
Selects the
para descendants of the context node
|
..
|
Selects the parent of the context node
|
@*
|
Selects all attributes of the context node
|
@name
|
Selects the
name attribute of the context node
|
../@name
|
Selects the
name attribute of the parent of the context node
|
Table 74. Abbreviations in XPath Expressions