Re: How to 'invert' an Xpath statement please

Hello David,
 
Yes... I see where my problem lies.
The statement '//*[not(ancestor-or-self::NODE)]' does basicly what I need, and yes, it gives me to much data because it includes ROOT and all it's subdata, including the data I don't want.
 
Maybe it's better I explain what I'm dooing.
I may elaborate a bit long, so please bare with me. :-)
 
Im writing a program to assist StreamServe developers to create complex xpath/xslt statements for their events.
In StreamServe, statements are assembled of 3 inputs (that's how StreamServe works :-) ).
We have a Pattern, which tells StreamServe which datafile connects to which part op StreamServe applications.
We have a Match, which tells StreamServe while handling a file, when to act.
We have Value, which tells StreamServe how to act when the match occurs.
(Nothing strange so far. :-)
 
The development enviroment inside StreamServe does not give any visible insight into what you are doing as a developer.
It's ... create a few statements .... compile (export in StreamServe therems) and run. See if it works......
If not, back to the drawing board.
 
In my program, the statements are made visible in the datafile, so one can SEE what's happening BEFORE you put the statement into StreamServe. I do this by highlighting the selections produced by each stetement, and I show the results that would be produced if StreamServe would run.
 
Now the problem.
The XML-data is shown in a RichTextBox. Here the highlighting takes place by finding the string to highlight using a *regular expression*.
If a string however occurs in more places than just in the data produced by the xpath statement, these data is highlighted to. This is undesireble.
So, I want to know WHERE the data starts that the statements produce.

See the following example:
<ROOT>
    <ELEMENT>Element 1</ELEMENT>
    <NODE>

        <ELEMENT>Element 1</ELEMENT>
        <ELEMENT>Element2 </ELEMENT>
    </NODE>
</ROOT>

If I use //NODE/ELEMENT than xpath tells me the data is ELEMENT (Which Element 1) end ELEMENT (Wich Element 2).
Finding this data to highlight produces...

<ROOT>
    <ELEMENT>Element 1</ELEMENT>
    <NODE>

        <ELEMENT>Element 1</ELEMENT>
        <ELEMENT>Element2 </ELEMENT>
    </NODE>
</ROOT>