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      <a href="d_start2.html">Chapter 1: Getting Started with Stylus Studio®</a>
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      <a href="d_edit.html">Chapter 2: Editing and Querying XML</a>
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      <a href="d_xpath.html">Chapter 9: Writing XPath Expressions</a>
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        <a href="d_xpath2.html#wp204661">About the XPath Processor</a>
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        <a href="d_xpath8.html#wp1719426">Using the XPath Query Editor</a>
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      <a href="d_xquery.html">Chapter 10: Working with XQuery in Stylus Studio</a>
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  <h1 class="pHeading2">
XPath Syntax Quick Reference

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This topic provides a quick reference for XPath expression syntax.

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Axes

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XPath provides the following axes: 

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          <code class="cCode">ancestor</code>
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          <code class="cCode">ancestor-or-self</code>
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          <code class="cCode">attribute</code>
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          <code class="cCode">child</code>
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          <code class="cCode">descendant</code>
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          <code class="cCode">descendant-or-self</code>
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          <code class="cCode">following</code>
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          <code class="cCode">following-sibling</code>
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          <code class="cCode">namespace</code>
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          <code class="cCode">parent</code>
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          <code class="cCode">preceding</code>
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          <code class="cCode">preceding-sibling</code>
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          <code class="cCode">self</code>
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Node Tests

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XPath provides the following node tests: 

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          <code class="cCode">*</code> selects all nodes of the specified name. For the 
          <code class="cCode">attribute</code> axis, attributes are selected. For the 
          <code class="cCode">namespace</code> axis, namespace nodes are selected. For all other axes, element nodes are selected. 
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          <code class="cCode">comment()</code> selects all comment nodes.
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        <li>element_name selects all element_name nodes.</li>
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          <code class="cCode">node()</code> selects all nodes.
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          <code class="cCode">processing-instruction(["</code>some_literal
          <code class="cCode">"])</code> selects all processing instructions. If some_literal is specified, 
          <code class="cCode">processing-instruction()</code> selects all processing instructions with some_literal as their name. 
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          <code class="cCode">text()</code> selects all text nodes.
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Filters

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A filter specifies a constraint on a node set with respect to an axis to produce a new node set. 

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Location Steps

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A location step has the following format:
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AxisSpecifier
              <code class="cCode">::</code>NodeTest
              <code class="cCode">[</code>Filter
              <code class="cCode">][</code>Filter
              <code class="cCode">]...</code>
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XPath Expression

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An XPath expression has one of the following formats:
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LocationStep[/LocationStep]...
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FunctionCall()[Filter]/LocationStep[/LocationStep]...
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(Expression)[Filter]/LocationStep[/LocationStep]...
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A function call or an XPath expression in parentheses can appear only at the very beginning of an XPath expression. An expression in parentheses always returns a node set. Any function that appears at the beginning of an XPath location step expression must return a node set.

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