How can I ignore first element and get rest of the elements?
<ul>
<li><a href="#">some link</a></li>
<li><a href="#">some link 2</a></li>
<li><a href="#">link i want to find</a></li>
</ul>
Thanks
views:
211answers:
3
A:
Assuming you want the anchor:
$first = true;
foreach($xml->xpath('//a') as $node) {
if (!$first) {
// Do your thing
} else {
$first = false;
}
}
Danten
2010-04-14 00:32:38
I would like to get it by using xpath only.
priyank
2010-04-14 01:01:01
+4
A:
if you want to ignore the "first" element only then:
//li[position()>1]
or
(//a)[position()>1]
if you want the last only (like your example seems to suggest):
//li[last()]
or
(//a)[last()]
t00ny
2010-04-14 01:10:11
Remember that indexes in XPath are 1-based, not 0-based. So the expression `a[position()>1]` returns all `a` elements except the first one.
isme
2010-04-14 01:15:57
position() returns the position of the context element. In the XPATH provided, the position of each `a` would equal 1 AND last() and return each of the `a` elements, not skipping the first.
Mads Hansen
2010-04-14 01:36:20
In order to get `position()` to evaluate as expected, you need to wrap the selection of elements in parentheses to group them in a node-set and *then* apply the predicate filter on position (i.e. (`//a)[position()>1]` and `(//a)[last()]` )
Mads Hansen
2010-04-14 01:48:21
@isme... yes i know it's 1 based, but i was puzzled by the question because he says he wants to ignore the first element, but the example suggests he'd only want the last one
t00ny
2010-04-14 02:39:49
-1 This answer is wrong in the context of the question. There is no `//a[position()>1]` in the example, and `//a[last()]` has three matches. Did you test your XPath before posting it?
Tomalak
2010-04-14 09:05:14
@Tomalak you're right! i did it wrong, i should be using "li" instead if "a" i'll to the adjustment... sorry about that
t00ny
2010-04-16 19:26:21
@Mads Hansen: you're also right i adjusted my response according to your comments thanks!
t00ny
2010-04-16 19:30:32
+1
A:
You can use position() to skip over the "first" one, but depending on which element you are interested in and what the context is, you may need a slight variation on your XPATH.
For instance, if you wanted to address all of the li elements and get all except the first, you could use:
//li[position()>1]
and it would work as expected, returning all of the li elements except for the first.
However, if you wanted to address all of the a elements you need to modify the XPATH slightly. In the context of the expression //a[position()>1] each one of the a elements will have a position() of 1 and last() will evaluate to true. So, it would always return every a and would not skip over the first one.
You need to wrap the expression that selects the a in parenthesis to group them in a node-set, then apply the predicate filter on position.
(//a)[position()>1]
Alternatively, you could also use an expression like this:
//a[preceding::a]
That will find all a elements except the first one (since there is no a preceding the first one).
Mads Hansen
2010-04-14 01:31:59