Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0 for Microsoft Office - XPath Reference

Location Path Examples

The following examples illustrate the use of location paths.

Path Description
child::node() Select all the children of the context node, whatever their node type.
attribute::name Select the name attribute of the context node.
attribute::* Select all the attributes of the context node.
descendant::para Select the <para> element descendants of the context node.
ancestor::div Select all <div> ancestors of the context node.
ancestor-or-self::div Select the <div> ancestors of the context node and, if the context node is a <div> element, select the context node as well.
descendant-or-self::para Select the <para> element descendants of the context node and, if the context node is a <para> element, select the context node as well.
self::para Select the context node if it is a <para> element; otherwise select nothing.
child::chapter/descendant::para Select the <para> element descendants of the <chapter> element children of the context node.
child::*/child::para Select all <para> grandchildren of the context node.
/ Select the document root (which is always the parent of the document element).
/descendant::para Select all the <para> elements in the same document as the context node.
/descendant::olist/child::item Select all the <item> elements that have an <olist> parent and that are in the same document as the context node.
child::para[position()=1] Select the first <para> child of the context node.
child::para[position()=last()] 
Select the last <para> child of the context node.
child::para[position()=last()-1] 
Select the next-to-last <para> child of the context node.
child::para[position()&gt;1]
Select all the <para> children of the context node, except for the first <para> child of the context node.
/descendant::figure[position()=42] 
Select the forty-second <figure> element in the document.
/child::doc/child::chapter[position()=5]/child::section[position()=2] 
Select the second <section> element contained in the fifth <chapter> element of the <doc> document element.
child::para[attribute::type="warning"] 
Select all <para> children of the context node that have a type attribute with the value "warning".
child::para[attribute::type="warning"][position()=5]
Select the fifth <para> child of the context node that has a type attribute with the value "warning".
child::para[position()=5][attribute::type="warning"] 
Select the fifth <para> child of the context node if that child has a type attribute with the value "warning".
child::chapter[child::title="Introduction"] 
Select the <chapter> children of the context node that have one or more <title> children with string value equal to "Introduction".
child::chapter[child::title] 
Select the <chapter> children of the context node that have one or more <title> children.
child::*[self::chapter or self::appendix] 
Select the <chapter> and <appendix> children of the context node.
child::*[self::chapter or self::appendix][position()=last()] 
Select the last <chapter> or <appendix> child of the context node.

See Also

XPath Examples