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Get started with XPath

Learn the basics

Bertrand Portier, Software Engineer, EMC

Bertrand Portier is a software engineer working in the IBM Software Group Services organization. He works with IBM® WebSphere® customers to provide solutions to their business problems. Before that, he used to work on product development in the Web services area. You can contact Bertrand at portier@uk.ibm.com.

Summary: This tutorial introduces and covers most aspects of the XML Path Language, or XPath. It is aimed at people who do not know XPath or who want a refresher. If you plan to use XSLT, you should take this tutorial first. You will learn: what XPath is; the syntax and semantics of the XPath language; how to use XPath location paths; how to use XPath expressions; how to use XPath functions; and how XPath relates to XSLT.

Date: 11 May 2004
Level: Introductory
PDF: A4 and Letter (103 KB | 21 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity: 39680 views
Comments:

Tutorial introduction

Should I take this tutorial?

This tutorial introduces and covers most aspects of the XML Path Language, or XPath. It is aimed at people who do not know XPath or want a refresher. If you plan to use XSLT, you should take this tutorial first. You will learn:

What XPath is
The syntax and semantics of the XPath language
How to use XPath location paths
How to use XPath expressions
How to use XPath functions
How XPath relates to XSLT

XPath is a W3C standard. This tutorial focuses on version 1.0. Refer to Tutorial wrap-up for information on the upcoming XPath 2.0.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of XML. For example, you should know what elements, attributes, and values are. If you aren't familiar with these, I recommend you first take the "Introduction to XML" tutorial, listed in Resources.

You will also need a text editor and a Web browser. Although it's not a prerequisite, you may also find it useful to have an XML editor, as it will include an XPath evaluator that allows you to test the XPath expressions used here.

XML-related technologies

Listed below are the technologies mentioned in this tutorial. Skip this if you are already familiar with XML-related technologies. All of these technologies are W3C specifications.

XML is the eXtensible Markup Language. It is the basis for the other technologies listed below (and many more), and is very widely used in the industry because of its extensibility.
XML Schema, sometimes referred to as XSD, defines the rules for the data contained in XML documents.
XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) and XSLT (XSL transformations) are used to present XML documents in a different format -- for example, HTML.
XPath -- hmm... that's a good question. ;-)