From: Phlip Date: 2009-03-18T22:52:31+09:00 Subject: Re: REXML get specific element > You are missing the '-s. > Try > doc.root.elements["programmer[@name='#{entered_name}']"] Then that croaks if the name contains an apostrophe. Try (IIRC)... XPath.first(doc, '//programmer[ @name = $name ]', :name => entered_name)