XPath Search troubles.

Question

I can't seem to grab this specific node.

<w:body>
    <w:p wsp:rsidR="00D12EE7" wsp:rsidRDefault="00F86B09">
      <w:fldSimple w:instr=" MERGEFIELD GAS_REAFCity ">
         <w:r>
           <w:rPr>
             <w:noProof/>
           </w:rPr>
           <w:t>«GAS_REAFCity»</w:t>
         </w:r>
       </w:fldSimple>
    </w:p>
</w:body>

I have tried can get as close as //w:p/w:fldSimple but how do i select w:instr=" MERGEFIELD GAS_REAFCity ".

Thanks Appreciate any help!!

Answer 1

Don't attributes use the @ syntax, so you'd select @w:instr ?

//w:p/w:fldSimple[@w:instr=" MERGEFIELD GAS_REAFCity "]

XPath Expression Tester

Answer 2

Hi

Your XPath will grab the element node, but you want the attribute node. Your xpath will need to be something like //w:p/w:fldSimple/@w:instr. depending on what your using to evaluate the xpath you could probably use something like myAttr.getText(), alternatively, you can use string(//w:p/w:fldSimple/@w:instr).

I notice that your XPath is relative, is this intentional? Lastly, there are many excellent frameworks for processing DOMs and XPaths, and I know at least Dom4J will allow you to programmatically walk a Dom tree and then you can query the XPath that would access that node.

I found the following tutorial useful when starting out

Hope this helps