XPath to select multiple tags

Question

Given this simplified data format    lt a gt       lt b gt           lt c gt C1 lt  c gt           lt d gt D1 lt  d gt           lt e gt E1 lt  e gt           lt f gt don t select this one lt  f gt       lt  b gt       lt b gt           lt c gt C2 lt  c gt           lt d gt D2 lt  d gt           lt e gt E1 lt  e gt           lt g gt don t select me lt  g gt       lt  b gt       lt c gt not this one lt  c gt       lt d gt nor this one lt  d gt       lt e gt definitely not this one lt  e gt   lt  a gt    How would you select all the Cs  Ds and Es that are children of B elements   Basically  something like   a b  c d e    In my own situation  instead of just a b   the query leading up to selecting those C  D  E nodes is actually quite complex so I d like to avoid doing this   a b c a b d a b e   Is this possible

User · Accepted Answer

One correct answer is    a b   self  c or self  d or self  e    Do note that this  a b   local-name    c  or local-name    d  or local-name    e     is both too-long and incorrect  This XPath expression will select nodes like   OhMy c  NotWanted d   QuiteDifferent e

User · Answer

You can avoid the repetition with an attribute test instead   a b   local-name    c  or local-name    d  or local-name    e     Contrary to Dimitre s antagonistic opinion  the above is not incorrect in a vacuum where the OP has not specified the interaction with namespaces  The self   axis is namespace restrictive  local-name   is not  If the OP s intention is to capture c d e regardless of namespace  which I d suggest is even a likely scenario given the OR nature of the problem  then it is  another answer that still has some positive votes  which is incorrect   You can t be definitive without definition  though I m quite happy to delete my answer as genuinely incorrect if the OP clarifies his question such that I am incorrect

User · Answer

Not sure if this helps  but with XSL  I d do something like    lt xsl for-each select  a b  gt       lt xsl value-of select  c   gt       lt xsl value-of select  d   gt       lt xsl value-of select  e   gt   lt  xsl for-each gt    and won t this XPath select all children of B nodes   a b

User · Answer

Why not a b  c d e   I just tried with Saxon XML library  wrapped up nicely with some Clojure goodness   and it seems to work  abc xml is the doc described by OP    require   saxon  as xml    def abc-doc  xml compile-xml  slurp  abc xml      xml query  a b  c d e   abc-doc    gt     lt XdmNode  lt c gt C1 lt  c gt  gt        lt XdmNode  lt d gt D1 lt  d gt  gt        lt XdmNode  lt e gt E1 lt  e gt  gt        lt XdmNode  lt c gt C2 lt  c gt  gt        lt XdmNode  lt d gt D2 lt  d gt  gt        lt XdmNode  lt e gt E1 lt  e gt  gt

[xml] XPath to select multiple tags

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