This has been copied from here: https://devhints.io/xpath

Testing

Xpath test bed

Test queries in the Xpath test bed:

Xpath test bed (whitebeam.org)

Browser console

$x("//div")

Works in Firefox and Chrome.

Selectors

Descendant selectors

CSSXpath?
h1//h1?
div p//div//p?
ul > li//ul/li?
ul > li > a//ul/li/a
div > *//div/*
----------
:root/?
:root > body/body

{: .xp}

Attribute selectors

CSSXpath?
#id//*[@id="id"]?
.class//*[@class="class"] ...kinda
input[type="submit"]//input[@type="submit"]
a#abc[for="xyz"]//a[@id="abc"][@for="xyz"]?
a[rel]//a[@rel]
----------
a[href^='/']//a[starts-with(@href, '/')]?
a[href$='pdf']//a[ends-with(@href, '.pdf')]
a[href*='://']//a[contains(@href, '://')]
a[rel~='help']//a[contains(@rel, 'help')] ...kinda

{: .xp}

Order selectors

CSSXpath?
ul > li:first-child//ul/li[1]?
ul > li:nth-child(2)//ul/li[2]
ul > li:last-child//ul/li[last()]
li#id:first-child//li[@id="id"][1]
a:first-child//a[1]
a:last-child//a[last()]

{: .xp}

Siblings

CSSXpath?
h1 ~ ul//h1/following-sibling::ul?
h1 + ul//h1/following-sibling::ul[1]
h1 ~ #id//h1/following-sibling::[@id="id"]

{: .xp}

jQuery

CSSXpath?
$('ul > li').parent()//ul/li/..?
$('li').closest('section')//li/ancestor-or-self::section
$('a').attr('href')//a/@href?
$('span').text()//span/text()

{: .xp}

Other things

CSSXpath?
h1:not([id])//h1[not(@id)]?
Text match//button[text()="Submit"]?
Text match (substring)//button[contains(text(),"Go")]
Arithmetic//product[@price > 2.50]
Has children//ul[*]
Has children (specific)//ul[li]
Or logic//a[@name or @href]?
Union (joins results)//a | //div?

{: .xp}

Class check

//div[contains(concat(' ',normalize-space(@class),' '),' foobar ')]

Xpath doesn't have the "check if part of space-separated list" operator, so this is the workaround (source).

Expressions

Steps and axes

AxisStepAxisStep
//ul/a[@id='link']

{: .-css-breakdown}

Prefixes

PrefixExampleWhat
////hr[@class='edge']Anywhere
././aRelative
//html/body/divRoot

{: .-headers}

Begin your expression with any of these.

Axes

AxisExampleWhat
///ul/li/aChild
////[@id="list"]//aDescendant

{: .-headers}

Separate your steps with /. Use two (//) if you don't want to select direct children.

Steps

//div
//div[@name='box']
//[@id='link']

A step may have an element name (div) and predicates ([...]). Both are optional.
They can also be these other things:

//a/text()     #=> "Go home"
//a/@href #=> "index.html"
//a/* #=> All a's child elements

Predicates

Predicates

//div[true()]
//div[@class="head"]
//div[@class="head"][@id="top"]

Restricts a nodeset only if some condition is true. They can be chained.

Operators

# Comparison
//a[@id = "xyz"]
//a[@id != "xyz"]
//a[@price > 25]
# Logic (and/or)
//div[@id="head" and position()=2]
//div[(x and y) or not(z)]

Use comparison and logic operators to make conditionals.

Using nodes

# Use them inside functions
//ul[count(li) > 2]
//ul[count(li[@class='hide']) > 0]
# This returns `<ul>` that has a `<li>` child
//ul[li]

You can use nodes inside predicates.

Indexing

//a[1]                  # first <a>
//a[last()] # last <a>
//ol/li[2] # second <li>
//ol/li[position()=2] # same as above
//ol/li[position()>1] # :not(:first-child)

Use [] with a number, or last() or position().

Chaining order

a[1][@href='/']
a[@href='/'][1]

Order is significant, these two are different.

Nesting predicates

//section[//h1[@id='hi']]

This returns <section> if it has an <h1> descendant with id='hi'.

Functions

Node functions

name()                     # //[starts-with(name(), 'h')]
text() # //button[text()="Submit"]
# //button/text()
lang(str)
namespace-uri()
count()                    # //table[count(tr)=1]
position() # //ol/li[position()=2]

Boolean functions

not(expr)                  # button[not(starts-with(text(),"Submit"))]

String functions

contains()                 # font[contains(@class,"head")]
starts-with() # font[starts-with(@class,"head")]
ends-with() # font[ends-with(@class,"head")]
concat(x,y)
substring(str, start, len)
substring-before("01/02", "/") #=> 01
substring-after("01/02", "/") #=> 02
translate()
normalize-space()
string-length()

Type conversion

string()
number()
boolean()

Axes

Using axes

//ul/li                       # ul > li
//ul/child::li # ul > li (same)
//ul/following-sibling::li # ul ~ li
//ul/descendant-or-self::li # ul li
//ul/ancestor-or-self::li # $('ul').closest('li')

Steps of an expression are separated by /, usually used to pick child nodes. That's not always true: you can specify a different "axis" with ::.

| // | ul | /child:: | li |
| Axis | Step | Axis | Step |
{: .-css-breakdown}

Child axis

# both the same
//ul/li/a
//child::ul/child::li/child::a

child:: is the default axis. This makes //a/b/c work.

# both the same
# this works because `child::li` is truthy, so the predicate succeeds
//ul[li]
//ul[child::li]
# both the same
//ul[count(li) > 2]
//ul[count(child::li) > 2]

Descendant-or-self axis

# both the same
//div//h4
//div/descendant-or-self::h4

// is short for the descendant-or-self:: axis.

# both the same
//ul//[last()]
//ul/descendant-or-self::[last()]

Other axes

AxisAbbrevNotes
ancestor
ancestor-or-self
---------
attribute@@href is short for attribute::href
childdiv is short for child::div
descendant
descendant-or-self//// is short for /descendant-or-self::node()/
namespace
---------
self.. is short for self::node()
parent.... is short for parent::node()
---------
following
following-sibling
preceding
preceding-sibling

{: .-headers}

There are other axes you can use.

Unions

//a | //span

Use | to join two expressions.

More examples

Examples

//*                 # all elements
count(//*) # count all elements
(//h1)[1]/text() # text of the first h1 heading
//li[span] # find a <li> with an <span> inside it
# ...expands to //li[child::span]
//ul/li/.. # use .. to select a parent

Find a parent

//section[h1[@id='section-name']]

Finds a <section> that directly contains h1#section-name

//section[//h1[@id='section-name']]

Finds a <section> that contains h1#section-name.
(Same as above, but uses descendant-or-self instead of child)

Closest

./ancestor-or-self::[@class="box"]

Works like jQuery's $().closest('.box').

Attributes

//item[@price > 2*@discount]

Finds <item> and check its attributes

References

{: .-one-column}

More helpful resources: