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

Re: XPath brain teaser


paragraph brain teaser
From: "Richard Tobin" <richard@c...>
> >This is easier to understand if you think of it in terms of set
construction
> >and iterators. The two expressions with abbreviations eliminated are:
> >
> >/descendant-or-self::node()/para[1]
> >/descendant::para[1]
>
> You might ask why // means the first of these, rather than the more
> obvious second.  The answer (I think) is precisely so that expressions
> like //para[1] will mean what they do; it's more common to want to
> treat the first paragraph in each section specially than the first
> paragraph in the while document.

Sure. I can understand defining the abbreviated expression so it is more
useful. And I agree with your original point that the result is
counter-intuitive, because the intermediate set is not visible in the
expression. Just a bit of arcana that has to be memorized, I guess.

Bob Foster


PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!

Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced!

Buy Stylus Studio Now

Download The World's Best XML IDE!

Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today!

Don't miss another message! Subscribe to this list today.
Email
First Name
Last Name
Company
Subscribe in XML format
RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3
 

Stylus Studio has published XML-DEV in RSS and ATOM formats, enabling users to easily subcribe to the list from their preferred news reader application.


Stylus Studio Sponsored Links are added links designed to provide related and additional information to the visitors of this website. they were not included by the author in the initial post. To view the content without the Sponsor Links please click here.

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Trademarks
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member
Stylus Studio® and DataDirect XQuery ™are products from DataDirect Technologies, is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation, in the U.S. and other countries. © 2004-2013 All Rights Reserved.