Re: [xsl] Selecting Specific Elements Regardless of Namespace

Subject: Re: [xsl] Selecting Specific Elements Regardless of Namespace
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 14:49:30 -0400
Lindy,

At 02:33 PM 5/9/2002, you wrote:

select="//*[local-name()='apple']"

I have found where this statement allows me to get an element named apple regardless of where it is at in the tree.

Yes, and select="//apple" works even better. It actually gets *all* elements named apple, not just one.


What if I need to get a specific apple.

/fruit/apples/jonathan/apple

//jonathan/apple gets you all apples that are inside jonathans.


as opposed to
/fruit/apples/grannysmith/apple

This is pretty basic XPath.


Fancier: all apples that are not in a grannysmith:

//apple[not(parent::grannysmith)]

Does anyone have a good recommendation on where new users can go to learn XPath? A common weakness of currently-available XSLT books is in their coverage of XPath's data model and syntax. Newbies need something that is both (a) comprehensive, systematic and correct, and (b) easy to swallow and digest. Unfortunately, it seems to be an area in which lots of folks think they can cut corners and fake it, whereas in my experience a couple of hours spent learning this stuff get you a *huge* return on investment in time (and list bandwidth) saved later.

Anyway Lindy, there's your answer.

Enjoy,
Wendell


====================================================================== Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com 17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635 Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631 Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML ======================================================================


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