[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace

• From: David Carlisle <davidc@n...>
• To: james_strachan@y...
• Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 11:49:49 +0100

> "the default namespace declared with xmlns is not used: if the QName does
> not have a prefix, then the namespace URI is null"

> So I thought that...

No, that paragraph describes the interpretation of the QNames in the
XPath: it has no bearing on the interpretation of names in the document.
so in the XPath /a/b/c  refers to elements in the null namespace (or,
more properly, elements in no namespace). 

>  can only find <c> with the XPath expression
> /*:a/*:b/*:c

Nope you can not do that as there is no *: construct to wildcard over
namespaces.

If you really don't want to declare a namespace then

/*[local-name(.)='a']/*[local-name(.)='b']/*[local-name(.)='c']
will get you there.

> This seems unfortunate for non-XSLT uses of XPath.
No, it just means that any API for qurying into namespace aware documents
with XPath had better offer a mechanism for setting up the current
namespace/prefix bindings.

David


_____________________________________________________________________
This message has been checked for all known viruses by Star Internet
delivered through the MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service. For further
information visit http://www.star.net.uk/stats.asp or alternatively call
Star Internet for details on the Virus Scanning Service.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace
    • From: "Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@h...>

• References:
  • quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace
    • From: James Strachan <james_strachan@y...>
  • Re: quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace
    • From: David Carlisle <davidc@n...>
  • Re: quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace
    • From: James Strachan <james_strachan@y...>

• Prev by Date: Classifying NEL (FW: about section 3.9, line boundary, and NEL)
• Next by Date: Re: quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace
• Previous by thread: Re: quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace
• Next by thread: Re: quick XPath question: finding /a/b/c with a default namespace
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread