How to select the first element with a specific attribute using XPath

Question

The XPath bookstore book 1  selects the first book node under bookstore   How can I select the first node that matches a more complicated condition  e g  the first node that matches  bookstore book  location  US

User · Answer

bookstore book  location  US   1  works only with simple structure  Add a bit more structure and things break  With-  lt bookstore gt    lt category gt     lt book location  quot US quot  gt A1 lt  book gt     lt book location  quot FIN quot  gt A2 lt  book gt    lt  category gt    lt category gt     lt book location  quot FIN quot  gt B1 lt  book gt     lt book location  quot US quot  gt B2 lt  book gt    lt  category gt   lt  bookstore gt     bookstore category book  location  US   1  yields  lt book location  quot US quot  gt A1 lt  book gt   lt book location  quot US quot  gt B2 lt  book gt   not  quot the first node that matches a more complicated condition quot    bookstore category book  location  US   2  returns nothing  With parentheses you can get the result the original question was for    bookstore category book  location  US    1  gives  lt book location  quot US quot  gt A1 lt  book gt   and   bookstore category book  location  US    2  works as expected

User · Answer

Use     bookstore book  location  US    1    This will first get the book elements with the location attribute equal to  US   Then it will select the first node from that set   Note the use of parentheses  which are required by some implementations   Note  this is not the same as  bookstore book 1   location  US   unless the first element also happens to have that location attribute

User · Answer

if namespace is provided on the given xml  its better to use this       local-name     bookstore     local-name    book    location  US    1

User · Answer

for ex      lt input b  demo  gt    And   input  b  demo    1

User · Answer

Use the index to get desired node if xpath is complicated or more than one node present with same xpath   Ex        bookstore  location    US    index    You can give the number which node you want

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lt bookstore gt        lt book location  US  gt A1 lt  book gt        lt category gt         lt book location  US  gt B1 lt  book gt         lt book location  FIN  gt B2 lt  book gt        lt  category gt        lt section gt         lt book location  FIN  gt C1 lt  book gt         lt book location  US  gt C2 lt  book gt        lt  section gt       lt  bookstore gt     So Given the above  you can select the first book with     book  location  US    1    And this will find the first one anywhere that has a location US   A1     book  location  US     Would return the node set with all books with location US   A1 B1 C2      category book  location  US    1    Would return the first book location US that exists in a category anywhere in the document   B1     bookstore  book  location  US    1    will return the first book with location US that exists anywhere under the root element bookstore  making the  bookstore part redundant really   A1   In direct answer    bookstore book  location  US   1    Will return you the first node for book element with location US that is under bookstore  A1   Incidentally if you wanted  in this example to find the first US book that was not a direct child of bookstore     bookstore    book  location  US    1

User · Answer

As an explanation to Jonathan Fingland s answer    multiple conditions in the same predicate   position   1 and  location  US    must be true as a whole multiple conditions in consecutive predicates   position   1   location  US    must be true one after another this implies that  position   1   location  US        location  US   position   1  while  position   1 and  location  US        location  US  and position   1  hint  a lone  position   1  can be abbreviated to  1    You can build complex expressions in predicates with the Boolean operators  and  and  or   and with the Boolean XPath functions not    true   and false    Plus you can wrap sub-expressions in parentheses

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With help of an online xpath tester I m writing this answer    For this    lt table id  t2  gt  lt tbody gt   lt tr gt  lt td gt 123 lt  td gt  lt td gt other lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt tr gt  lt td gt foo lt  td gt  lt td gt columns lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt tr gt  lt td gt bar lt  td gt  lt td gt are lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt tr gt  lt td gt xyz lt  td gt  lt td gt ignored lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  tbody gt  lt  table gt    the following xpath   id  t2     tbody   tr   td 1    outputs   123 foo bar xyz   Since 1 means select all td elements which are the first child of their own direct parent  But the following xpath    id  t2     tbody   tr   td  1    outputs   123

User · Answer

The easiest way to find first english book node  in the whole document   taking under consideration more complicated structered xml file  like    lt bookstore gt    lt category gt     lt book location  US  gt A1 lt  book gt     lt book location  FIN  gt A2 lt  book gt    lt  category gt    lt category gt     lt book location  FIN  gt B1 lt  book gt     lt book location  US  gt B2 lt  book gt    lt  category gt   lt  bookstore gt     is xpath expression     descendant  book  location  US   1

[xpath] How to select the first element with a specific attribute using XPath

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