[xpath] Selecting levels from the document hierarchy

Hi,

These are the two XPath expressions I use to select element 'levels' from
the document. (Every parent->child step is a 'level' down)

To select n levels from the root:
//*[count(ancestor-or-self::*)<=n]

To select n levels from the endpoint elements:
//*[not(*)]/ancestor-or-self::*[position()<=n]

Is there a way to write either of these is a different (more efficient?)
way?

Thanks in advance,
Taras


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