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How does this XPATH query differentiate?

Answer 1

+2 A:

Break down your XPath:

// - This will search anywhere in the XML for a match, instead of looking for an explicit "path".

a - This will match all a elements. Therefore your other elements (td in this case) will be ignored.

[@class='tim_new'] - This will match an attribute called class with a vaule of tim_new.

So all together, your XPath will look everywhere in your input XML (HTML in this case) for an a element which has an attribute class with a value of tim_new.

If you wanted to match the td elements instead, you'd use //td[@class='tim_new'].

Graham Clark 2010-06-08 09:09:45

So given this logic, it follows that `//a[@class=tim]` will extract/look for lines with similar characteristics like that of second line?

Soham 2010-06-08 09:18:21

@Soham: The XPath `//a[@class='tim']` will match the second `a` element in your example HTML.

Graham Clark 2010-06-08 09:34:31

Oh, so the attribute value is being matched, and not strings per se. For an example, how do you suggest I extract the hyperlinked word in the second line, here in this case its "Diversified". Mind you there are many other lines in the same XML/HTML file, with `a` element

Soham 2010-06-08 09:38:38

So, at first thought, I thought //a will yield something interesting, but it will return everything in that way.

Soham 2010-06-08 09:45:38

Okay, I dont know if its possible to extract that using XPATH,but .SELECT(n => n.InnerText); solved it. But would like to hear your thoughts.

Soham 2010-06-08 09:52:33

@Soham: You could use `//a[@class='tim']/text()` to get this text.

Graham Clark 2010-06-08 09:55:56

Oh brilliant! Why didnt I think about that! Interesting, it gave me some good insight into its flexibility.

Soham 2010-06-08 10:51:31

Yes it worked. Thanks for the headsup!

Soham 2010-06-08 10:58:30

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How does this XPATH query differentiate?

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