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4/8/2010

XML Path Language (XPath) functions are used to evaluate expressions.

Each function in the function library is specified using a function prototype that gives the return type, function name, and argument type. If an argument type is followed by a question mark, the argument is optional; otherwise, the argument is required. Function names are case-sensitive.

The following table shows the function groups used by XPath.

Function group	Description
XPath String Functions	Performs evaluations, formatting, and manipulation on string arguments.
XPath Number Functions	Evaluates the argument expressions to obtain a numeric result.
XPath Boolean Functions	Evaluates the argument expressions to obtain a Boolean result.
XPath Node-Set Functions	Takes a node-setargument, returns a node set, or returns/provides information about a particular node within a node set.
XSLT Functions	Additions to the core XPath function library.

Examples

Find all text children of author elements.

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author/text()

Find all elements that have text node or CDATA node children.

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*[text()]

Find the last author for each book.

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book/author[last()]

Examples

See Also

Reference

Other Resources