Re: [xsl] Brackets in XPATHS

[Jeni Tennison <jeni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Edward,

>>/xpath1/*[name()='xpath2' or name()='xpath3']/xpath4
>
> the xpath's are xpaths not names, I just wrote them this way to
> emphasise what I was talking about.
>
> xpath1 = tag1/tag2[@attrib1='fads']/tag3[@attrib2='ahf']
> xpath2 = tag4
> xpath3 = tag5[1][attrib3='gf' and tag6/@attrib4 ='flk']
> xpath4 = @attrib5

You could use the self:: axis instead, with:

  tag1/tag2[@attrib1 = 'fads']/tag3[@attrib2 = 'ahf']
    /node()[self::tag4 |
            self::tag5[1][attrib3 = 'gf' and tag6/@attrib4 = 'flk']]
    /@attrib5

This pattern doesn't work for *all* paths. Specifically, you couldn't
use it if path2 or path3 were selecting attribute or namespace nodes.
However, even if you weren't using such complex paths, using the
self:: axis is better than testing against the name() function because
it's namespace-aware, whereas the name() function uses the prefixes
from the source document.

Note that the path:

  tag1/tag2[@attrib1 = 'fads']/tag3[@attrib2 = 'ahf']
    /(tag4 |
      tag5[1][attrib3 = 'gf' and tag6/@attrib4 = 'flk'])
    /@attrib5

will be just fine in XPath 2.0.

Cheers,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/


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