From: Mark Volkmann <mark@...>
Date: 2007-09-25T04:41:38+09:00
Subject: Re: getting XPath in REXML to dive deeper

--Apple-Mail-228--245183161
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset=US-ASCII;
	delsp=yes;
	format=flowed

On Sep 24, 2007, at 2:34 PM, Gavin Kistner wrote:

> Peter Bailey wrote:
>> I'm finally using REXML instead of plain vanilla Ruby to convert XML
>> data. I've learned a bit about XPath and how REXML can use it.  
>> I've got
>> a sample XML file whose root element is <registration>. Underneath  
>> that
>> element are a bunch of children elements. So, when I do the  
>> instruction
>> listed below, I get all of them. But, I don't get the last two  
>> elements
>> that, to me anyway, are children, too. The only thing different about
>> them is that they have children, too. Does anyone know the  
>> nomenclature
>> for getting ALL of the children of an element, not just those that  
>> are
>> immediate children. I guess I want grandkids, too!
>>
>> XPath.each(doc, "//registration/*") { |element| puts element.text }
>
> The term you are looking for is 'descendants'. In XPath, '/' is
> shorthand for the 'child' axis. You want the 'descendant' axis, which
> has the shorthand (that you already used) of '//'.
>
> So "//registration//*" is "At any level, find an element named
> 'registration', and then find every element below any of them."
>
> You possible want "registration//*" which is "every element in the
> entire XML file at every level except for the root node",

Doesn't he want "/registration//*" ? Note the slash at the beginning.

---
Mark Volkmann



--Apple-Mail-228--245183161--