XPath Crib Sheet

XPath Crib Sheet Syd Bauman David Birnbaum Julia Flanders Northeastern University Women Writers Project

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Quick guide to XPath path expressions.

fix author metadata change eg to code passim Swapped columns 3 & 4, dropped most (now useless) comments Crib Sheet for XPath Expressions short long example … … means . self::node() (note: long and short are not exactly equivalent) me, whatever I happen to be (element, attribute, comment, processing instruction, document root, or even text) element-name child:: element-name <xsl:apply-templates select="said"> my said children * child::* <xsl:template match="*"> match each child element // element-name descendant:: element-name (note: long and short are not exactly equivalent) <xsl:template match="body//div"> the div descendants of body (i.e., all div elements, except those that are somewhere inside a front or back) .. parent::node() my parent, whatever it happens to be (element or root) parent:: element-name ]]> do “stuff” iff my parent is an author ancestor:: element-name <xsl:apply-templates select="ancestor::listPerson/head"> process my ancestor listPersons’ headings ancestor::* <xsl:apply-templates select="ancestor::*"> all my ancestors following:: element-name <xsl:apply-templates select="following::sic"> Process sics after me (e.g., to make a list of errors left to go) following-sibling:: element-name <xsl:apply-templates select="following-sibling::l"> the l children of my parent that come after me (i.e., the rest of the stanza) preceding:: element-name <xsl:value-of select="count( preceding::pb )"> what page # I’m on preceding-sibling:: element-name <xsl:apply-templates select="preceding-sibling::head"> the head children of my parent that come before me @ attribute-name attribute:: attribute-name <xsl:template match="@rend"> handle rend attributes @* attribute::* <xsl:apply-templates select="@*"> process all of my attributes