2. 2
In this lecture
• Review of the XPath specification
– data model
– examples
– syntax
Resources:
A formal semantics of patterns in XSLT by Phil Wadler.
XML Path Language (XPath) www.w3.org/TR/xpath
3. 3
XPath
• http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath (11/99)
• Building block for other W3C standards:
– XSL Transformations (XSLT)
– XML Link (XLink)
– XML Pointer (XPointer)
– XML Query
• Was originally part of XSL
4. XPath
• An expression language to be used in
another host language (e.g., XSLT,
XQuery).
• Allows the description of paths in an XML
tree, and the retrieval of nodes that match
these paths.
• Can also be used for performing some
(limited) operations on XML data.
4
5. 5
Example for XPath Queries
<bib>
<book> <publisher> Addison-Wesley </publisher>
<author> Serge Abiteboul </author>
<author> <first-name> Rick </first-name>
<last-name> Hull </last-name>
</author>
<author> Victor Vianu </author>
<title> Foundations of Databases </title>
<year> 1995 </year>
</book>
<book price=“55”>
<publisher> Freeman </publisher>
<author> Jeffrey D. Ullman </author>
<title> Principles of Database and Knowledge Base Systems </title>
<year> 1998 </year>
</book>
</bib>
<bib>
<book> <publisher> Addison-Wesley </publisher>
<author> Serge Abiteboul </author>
<author> <first-name> Rick </first-name>
<last-name> Hull </last-name>
</author>
<author> Victor Vianu </author>
<title> Foundations of Databases </title>
<year> 1995 </year>
</book>
<book price=“55”>
<publisher> Freeman </publisher>
<author> Jeffrey D. Ullman </author>
<title> Principles of Database and Knowledge Base Systems </title>
<year> 1998 </year>
</book>
</bib>
6. Data Model for XPath
• XPath expressions operate over XML trees,
which consist of the following node types:
– Document: the root node of the XML
document;
– Element: element nodes;
– Attribute: attribute nodes, represented as
children of an Element node;
– Text: text nodes, i.e., leaves of the XML tree.
6
7. 7
Data Model for XPath
bib
book book
publisher author . . . .
Addison-Wesley Serge Abiteboul
The root
The root element
Much like the Xquery data model
Processing
instruction
Comment
Attr= “1”
element
attribute
text
8. Data Model for XPath
• The root node of an XML tree is the (unique)
Document node;
• The root element is the (unique) Element child of
the root node;
• A node has a name, or a value, or both
– an Element node has a name, but no value;
– a Text node has a value (a character string), but no name;
– an Attribute node has both a name and a value.
• Attributes are special! Attributes are not considered
as first-class nodes in an XML tree. They must be
addressed specifically, when needed.
8
10. 10
XPath Tree Nodes
• Seven nodes types:
– root, element, attribute, text, comment, processing
instruction and namespace
• Namespace and attribute nodes have parent nodes,
but are not children of those parent nodes.
• The relationship between a parent node and a child
node is containment
• Attribute nodes and namespace nodes describe
their parent nodes
11. 11
Xpath Tree Nodes
<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<!-- Fig. 11.3 : simple2.xml -->
<!-- Processing instructions and namespacess -->
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<title>Processing Instruction and Namespace Nodes
</title>
</head>
<?deitelprocessor example = "fig11_03.xml"?>
<body>
<deitel:book deitel:edition = "1"
xmlns:deitel = "http://www.deitel.com/xmlhtp1">
<deitel:title>XML How to Program</deitel:title>
</deitel:book>
</body>
</html>
12. 12
XPath Tree Nodes
• String-value: The string-value of a text node consists of the character data
contained in the node.
• Document order: Nodes in an XPath tree have an ordering that is
determined by the order in which the nodes appear in the original XML
document.
• The reverse document order is the reverse ordering of the nodes in a
document.
• The string-value for the html element node is determined by concatenating
the string-values for all of its descendant text nodes in document order.
• The string-value for element node html is
Processing Instruction and Namespace NodesXML How to Program
• Because all whitespace is removed when the text nodes are normalized,
there is no space in the concatenation.
13. 13
XPath Tree Nodes
• For processing instructions, the string-value consists of the
remainder of the processing instruction after the target, including
whitespace, but excluding the ending ?>
• The string-value for the processing instruction is
• example = "fig11_03.xml"
• Namespace-node string-values consist of the URI for the
namespace.
• The string-value for the namespace declaration is
http://www.deitel.com/xmlhtpl
14. 14
XPath Tree Nodes
• For the root node of the document, the string-value is also
determined by concatenating the string-values of its text-
node descendents in document order.
• The string-value of the root node is therefore identical to
the string-value calculated for the html element node
• The string-value for the edition attribute node consists of
its value, which is 1.
• The string-value for a comment node consists only of the
comment's text, excluding <!-- and -->.
• The string-value for the second comment node is therefore:
Processing instructions and namespacess.
15. 15
XPath Tree Nodes
• Expanded-name: Certain nodes (i.e., element, attribute,
processing instruction and namespace) also have an
expanded-name that can be used to locate specific nodes
in the XPath tree.
• Expanded-names consist of both a local part and a
namespace URI.
• If there is a prefix for the element node, the namespace
URI of the expanded-name is the URI to which the
prefix is bound.
16. 16
XPath Tree Nodes
Node Type string-value expanded-name Description
root Determined by concatenating the
string-values of all text-node
descendents in document order.
None Represents the root of an XML
document. This node exists only at
the top of the tree and may contain
element, comment or processor-
instruction children.
element Determined by concatenating the
string-values of all text-node
descendents in document order.
The element tag, including
the namespace prefix (if
applicable).
Represents an XML element and may
contain element, text, comment or
processor-instruction children.
attribute The normalized value of the
attribute.
The name of the attribute,
including the namespace
prefix (if applicable).
Represents an attribute of an element.
text The character data contained in
the text node.
None. Represents the character data content
of an element
comment The content of the comment (not
including <!-- and -->).
None. Represents an XML comment
processing
instruction
The part of the processing
instruction that follows the target
and any whitespace
The target of the
processing instruction.
Represents an XML processing
instruction
namespace The URI of the namespace The namespace prefix. Represents an XML namespace
17. 17
XPath: Axes
• A location path is an expression that specifies how to navigate an
XPath tree from one node to another.
• A location path is composed of location steps, each of which is
composed of an "axis," a "node test" and an optional "predicate."
• Searching through an XML document begins at a context node in the
XPath tree.
• Searches through the XPath tree are made relative to this context node.
• An axis indicates which nodes, relative to the context node, should be
included in the search.
• The axis also dictates the ordering of the nodes in the set.
• Axes that select nodes that follow the context node in document order
are called forward axes.
• Axes that select nodes that precede the context node in document order
are called reverse axes.
18. XPath Steps
• The basic component of XPath expression are steps, of
the form: axis::node-test[P1][P2]. . . [Pn]
– axis is an axis name indicating what the direction of the step
in the XML tree is (child is the default).
– node-test is a node test, indicating the kind of nodes to
select.
– Pi is a predicate, that is, any XPath expression, evaluated as a
boolean, indicating an additional condition. There may be no
predicates at all.
• A step is evaluated with respect to a context, and
returns a node list.
18
19. Path Expressions
• A path expression is of the form: [/]step1/step2/. . .
/stepn
– A path that begins with / is an absolute path expression;
– A path that does not begin with / is a relative path expression.
• Examples
– /A/B is an absolute path expression denoting the Element
nodes with name B, children of the root named A;
– ./B/descendant::text() is a relative path expression which
denotes all the Text nodes descendant of an Element B,
itself child of the context node;
– /A/B/@att1[.> 2] denotes all the Attribute nodes @att1
whose value is greater than 2.
19
20. Evaluation of Path Expressions
• Each stepi is interpreted with respect to a context;
its result is a node list.
• A step stepi is evaluated with respect to the
context of stepi−1. More precisely:
– For i = 1 (first step) if the path is absolute, the context
is a singleton, the root of the XML tree; else (relative
paths) the context is defined by the environment;
– For i > 1 if N = < N1,N2, · · · ,Nn > is the result of step
stepi−1, stepi is successively evaluated with respect to
the context [N,Nj ], for each j [1,n].
• The result of the path expression is the node set
obtained after evaluating the last step.
20
21. Evaluation of Path Expressions
• Evaluation of /A/B/@att1
– The path expression is absolute: the context
consists of the root node of the tree.
• The first step, A, is evaluated with respect
to this context.
21
22. Evaluation of /A/B/@att1
• The result is A, the root element.
• A is the context for the evaluation of the
second step, B.
22
23. Evaluation of /A/B/@att1
• The result is a node list with two nodes
B[1], B[2].
• @att1 is first evaluated with the context
node B[1].
23
27. Evaluation of /A/B/@att1
• Final result: the node set union of all the
results of the last step, @att1.
27
28. 28
XPath: Axes
Axes Ordering Description
Self None The context node itself.
Parent Reverse The context node's parent, if one exists.
Child Forward The context node's children, if they exist.
Ancestor Reverse The context node's ancestors, if they exist.
ancestor-or-self Reverse The context node's ancestors and also itself.
Descendant Forward The context node's descendants.
descendant-or-self Forward The context node's descendants and also itself.
Following Forward The nodes in the XML document following the context node,
not including descendants.
following-sibling Forward The sibling nodes following the context node.
Preceding Reverse The nodes in the XML document preceding the context
node, not including ancestors.
preceding-sibling Reverse The sibling nodes preceding the context node.
Attribute Forward The attribute nodes of the context node.
Namespace Forward The namespace nodes of the context node.
29. 29
XPath: Axes
• An axis has a principal node type that corresponds to the
type of node the axis may select.
• For attribute axes, the principal node type is attribute.
• For namespace axes, the principal node type is namespace.
• All other axes have a element principal node type.
30. XPath: Axes
• Child axis: denotes the Element or Text children
of the context node.
• Important: An Attribute node has a parent (the
element on which it is located), but an attribute
node is not one of the children of its parent.
• Example: child::D
30
31. XPath: Axes
• Parent axis: denotes the parent of the context node.
– Always a Element or Document node, or an empty node-set (if
the parent does not match the node test).
– .. is an abbreviation for parent::node(): the parent of the context
• Example: parent::node()
31
32. XPath: Axes
• Attribute axis: denotes the attributes of the
context node.
– The node test is either the attribute name, or * which
matches all the names.
• Example: attribute::*
32
33. XPath: Axes
• Descendant axis: all the descendant nodes, except the
Attribute nodes.
– The node test is either the node name (for Element nodes), or * (any
Element node) or text() (any Text node) or node() (all nodes).
– The context node does not belong to the result: use descendant-or-self
instead.
• Example: descendant::node()
33
35. XPath: Axes
• Ancestor axis: all the ancestor nodes.
– The node test is either the node name (for Element nodes),
or node() (any Element node, and the Document root
node).
– The context node does not belong to the result: use
ancestor-or-self instead.
• Example: ancestor::node()
35
36. XPath: Axes
• Following axis: all the nodes that follows the
context node in the document order.
– Attribute nodes are not selected.
– The node test is either the node name or node().
– The axis preceding denotes all the nodes that precede the
context node.
• Example: following::node()
36
37. XPath: Axes
• Following sibling axis: all the nodes that follows
the context node, and share the same parent node.
– Same node tests as descendant or following.
– The axis preceding-sibling denotes all the nodes the
precede the context node.
• Example: following-sibling::node()
37
38. 38
Location Path Abbreviations
Location path Abbreviation
child:: This location path is used by default if
no axis is supplied and may therefore
be omitted
attribute:: @
/descendant-or-self::node()/ //
self::node() (.)
parent::node() (..)
39. 39
XPath: Node Tests
• The set of selected nodes is refined with node tests.
• node tests rely upon the principal node type of an axis for
selecting nodes in a location path
Node Test Description
* Selects all nodes of the same principal node type.
node() Selects all nodes, regardless of their type.
text() Selects all text nodes.
comment() Selects all comment nodes.
processing-instruction() Selects all processing-instruction nodes.
node name Selects all nodes with the specified node name.
40. 40
XPath: Axes
• Location Paths Using Axes and Node Tests
– Location paths are composed of sequences of location
steps.
– A location step contains an axis and a node test
separated by a double-colon (::) and, optionally, a
"predicate" enclosed in square brackets ([ ]).
42. 42
XPath: Axes and Node Tests
• child::text()
– selects all text-node children of the context
node
• Combining two location steps to form the
location path
– child::*/child::text()
– selects all text-node grandchildren of the
context node
44. 44
XPath: Restricted Kleene Closure
• select all author element nodes in an entire document
/descendent-or-self::node()/child::author
• Instead use the abbreviation:
//author
Result:<author> Serge Abiteboul </author>
<author> <first-name> Rick </first-name>
<last-name> Hull </last-name>
</author>
<author> Victor Vianu </author>
<author> Jeffrey D. Ullman </author>
/bib//first-name
Result: <first-name> Rick </first-name>
46. XPath: Predicates
• Boolean expression, built with tests and the
Boolean connectors and/or.
• a test is
– either an XPath expression, whose result is
converted to a Boolean;
– a comparison or a call to a Boolean function.
• Important: predicate evaluation requires several
rules for converting nodes and node sets to the
appropriate type.
46
47. Predicate Evaluation
• A step is of the form axis::node-test[P]
• First axis::node-test is evaluated: one obtains an
intermediate result I
• Second, for each node in I, P is evaluated: the step
result consists of those nodes in I for which P is true.
/A/B/descendant::text()[1]
47
48. Predicate Evaluation
• Here the result consists of those Text nodes, first
descendant (in the document order) of a node B.
• /A/B//text()[1]
48
49. 49
XPath: Predicates
<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<!-- Fig. 11.9 : books.xml -->
<!-- XML book list -->
<books>
<book>
<title>Java How to Program</title>
<translation edition="1">Spanish</translation>
<translation edition="1">Chinese</translation>
<translation edition="1">Japanese</translation>
<translation edition="2">French</translation>
<translation edition="2">Japanese</translation>
</book>
<book>
<title>C++ How to Program</title>
<translation edition="1">Korean</translation>
<translation edition="2">French</translation>
<translation edition="2">Spanish</translation>
<translation edition="3">Italian</translation>
<translation edition="3">Japanese</translation>
</book>
</books>
50. 50
XPath: Predicates
• Select the title element node for each book that has
a Japanese translation
/books/book/translation[. = 'Japanese']/../title
• A predicate is a Boolean expression used as part of
a location path to filter nodes from the search.
• Select the edition attribute node for books with
Japanese translations
/books/book/translation[. = 'Japanese']/@edition
51. XPath 1.0 Type System
• Four primitive types:
• The boolean(), number(), string() functions convert types into
each other (no conversion to nodesets is defined), but this
conversion is done in an implicit way most of the time.
• Rules for converting to a Boolean:
– A number is true if it is neither 0 nor NaN(not a number).
– A string is true if its length is not 0.
– A nodeset is true if it is not empty.
51
Type Description Literals Examples
Boolean Boolean values None true()
Number Floating-point 12, 12.5 1 div 33
String Ch. Strings "to", ’ti’ concat(’Hello’,’!’)
Nodeset Node set None /a/b[c=1 or @e]/d
52. XPath 1.0 Type System
• Rules for converting a nodeset to a string:
– The string value of a nodeset is the string value of its first
item in document order.
– The string value of an element or document node is the
concatenation of the character data in all text nodes below.
– The string value of a text node is its character data.
– The string value of an attribute node is the attribute value.
• Examples
52
<a toto="3">
<b titi=’tutu’><c /></b>
<d>tata</d>
</a>
string(/) "tata"
string(/a/@toto) "3"
boolean(/a/b) true()
boolean(/a/e) false()
53. 53
Operators
• Node-set operators allow to manipulate the node
sets to form other node sets.
Node-set Operators Description
pipe (|) union of node-sets (Example: node()|@*)
slash (/) Separates location steps
double-slash (//) Abbreviation for the location path
/descendant-or-self::node()/
+, -, *, div, mod standard arithmetic operators
or, and Boolean operators (Example: @a and c=3)
<, <=, >=, > relational operators (Example: ($a<2) and
($a>0))
54. XPath Examples
• child::A/descendant::B : B elements, descendant
of an A element, itself child of the context node;
• child::*/child::B : all the B grand-children of the
context node
• descendant-or-self::B : elements B descendants of
the context node, plus the context node itself if its
name is B.
• child::B[position()=last()] : the last child named B
of the context node. Abbreviated to B[last()].
• following-sibling::B[1] : the first sibling of type B
(in the document order) of the context node
54
55. XPath 2.0
• An extension of XPath 1.0
• Improved data model tightly associated with XML
Schema.
– a new sequence type, representing ordered set of nodes
and/or values, with duplicates allowed.
• More powerful new operators (loops) and better control
of the output (limited tree restructuring capabilities)
• Extensible Many new built-in functions; possibility to
add user-defined functions.
55
56. Path expressions in XPath 2.0
• New node tests in XPath 2.0:
• Nested paths expressions: Any expression that
returns a sequence of nodes can be used as a step
56
/book/(author | editor)/name
Node tests Description
item() any node or atomic value
element() any element (eq. to child::* in XPath
1.0)
element(author) any element named author
element(*, xs:person) any element of type xs:person
attribute() any attribute
57. XPath 1.0 Implementations
• libxml2 Free C library for parsing XML
documents, supporting XPath.
• java.xml.xpath Java package, included with JDK
versions starting from 1.5.
• System.Xml.XPath .NET classes for XPath.
• XML::XPath Free Perl module, includes a
command-line tool.
• DOMXPath PHP class for XPath, included in
PHP5.
• PyXML Free Python library for parsing XML
documents, supporting XPath.
57
