XPath Abbreviations Quick Reference

Table 104 defines the abbreviations you can use in XPath expressions:

Table 104. XPath Abbreviations Quick Reference
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: chapter/para child::chapter/child::para
`@`	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`: para[@type="warning"] child::para[attribute::type="warning"]
`//`	The `descendant-or-self` axis. For example, the following two XPath expressions both return all `para` descendants of the context node: //para /descendant-or-self::node()/child::para However, it is important to note that the following two expressions are not equivalent: /descendant::para[1] //para[1] 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: .//para self::node()/descendant-or-self::node()/child::para
`..`	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: ../title parent::node()/child::title

Table 105 shows examples of abbreviations in XPath expressions

Table 105. 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

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XPath Abbreviations Quick Reference

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