• Chapter 1: Getting Started with Stylus Studio
• Chapter 2: Editing and Querying XML
• Chapter 3: Converting Non-XML Files to XML
• Chapter 4: Working with XSLT
• Chapter 5: Creating XSLT Using the XSLT Mapper
• Chapter 6: Debugging Stylesheets
• Chapter 7: Defining XML Schemas
• Chapter 8: Defining Document Type Definitions
• Chapter 9: Writing XPath Expressions
  • About the XPath Processor
  • Sample Data for Examples and Testing
  • Getting Started with Queries
  • Specifying the Nodes to Evaluate
  • Handling Strings and Text
  • Specifying Boolean Expressions and Functions
  • Specifying Number Operations and Functions
  • Comparing Values
  • Finding a Particular Node
  • Obtaining a Union
  • Obtaining Information About a Node or a Node Set
  • Using XPath Expressions in Stylesheets
  • Accessing Other Documents During Query Execution
  • XPath Quick Reference
• Chapter 10: Working with XQuery in Stylus Studio
• Chapter 11: Composing Web Service Calls
• Chapter 12: Accessing Relational Data as XML
• Chapter 13: Extending Stylus Studio
• Chapter 14: Stylus Studio Reference

Home > Online Product Documentation > Table of Contents > Obtaining the Text Contained in a Node

Obtaining the Text Contained in a Node

You can use the string() function to obtain the text in a node. The string value of an element node is the concatenation of the string values of all text node descendants of the element node in document order. Use one of the following formats:

string string(pathExpression)
               
pathExpression
               

            

Replace pathExpression with the path of the node or nodes that contain the text you want. This can be a rooted path or a relative path. It need not be a single node. If you do not explicitly specify the string() function, you must specify pathExpression in a context where the XPath processor must treat it as a string, for example:

/bookstore/book[title = "Trenton Revisited"]
               

            

The XPath processor obtains the text contained in each title element and compares it with "Trenton Revisited". The XPath processor returns books with the title Trenton Revisited.

For additional information about the string() function, see Converting Objects to Strings.