selecting the last node from a list of matches

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out a way of finding the last node that matches a given xpath using last() function. The problem is that the last element of path also has a constraint specified.

"//div[@id='someId']/ul/li/div[@class='class1 class2 ']/span[@class='someType2 ']"

if I use

"//div[@id='someId']/ul/li/div[@class='class1 class2 ']/span[@class='someType2 ']' and last()]"

it still matches multiple nodes. Maybe one of the reasons is that the last div tag in the path contains 2 span elements. please help me select the last node which matches the above path.

Thanks and Regards,
Vamyip

Answer 1

If your xml is xhtml, why don't use CSS selectors ? If I'm not mistaken, the selectors should be

#someId > ul > li > div.class1.class2 > span.someType2

#someId > ul > li > div.class1.class2 > span.someType2:last

I was using xpath on html pages too, but when CSS selectors became widespread I found that they are more supported across browsers than xpath.

Answer 2

Use:

(//div[@id='someId']/ul/li/div[@class='class1 class2 ']
                                  /span[@class='someType2 '])
                                          [last()]

Do note: the brackets surrounding the expression starting with //. This is a FAQ. [] binds stronger than // and this is why brackets are necessary to indicate different precedence.