Re: Not So Newbie XPath Question

Hi Bernard,

>> This will only work in a select expression because match patterns
>> don't allow following-sibling:: axes.  For a match pattern, you need
>> something like you have already or one of its equivalents, like:
>
> Is it only the following-sibling:: that does not work in a match or
> does any "forward" axes like following:: not work as well? I have
> been using my existing version with MSXML's
> IXMLDOMElement.selectSingleNode method?

You can only use the 'child' and 'attribute' axes in match patterns
(and the descendant-or-self axis, but only in its shortened form [i.e.
//]). So things like following:: or preceding:: or ancestor:: (or even
namespace::, somewhat annoyingly) aren't acceptable.

When I say 'in match patterns' I'm only talking about the axes used in
the pattern steps, not the expressions that you can place inside
predicates (those are select expressions), so it's possible to have:

  foo/bar[following-sibling::baz]

but not:

  foo/baz/preceding-sibling::bar

As is indicated by its name, IXMLDOMElement.selectSingleNode *selects*
a node, so anything goes. Reading the MSXML documentation, it's a
little confusing because it keeps talking about returning 'matched'
nodes, but trust me - they're select expressions :)

Match patterns are 'only' used in template matches, numbering and key
matches in XSLT. There might be other uses in MSXML, but I don't know
of them.

I hope clears things up a bit,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/



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