Home >Online Product Documentation >Table of Contents >Syntax for Specifying an Axis in a Query
The previous sections provide examples of XPath expression syntax that uses abbreviations. This section introduces you to the axis syntax that many of the abbreviations represent. For a list of XPath abbreviations, see XPath Abbreviations Quick Reference.
You can use axis syntax to specify a location path in a query. An axis specifies the tree relationship between the nodes selected by an expression and the context node. The syntax for specifying an axis in a query is as follows:
The axis names are defined in Supported Axes.
A node test is a simple expression that tests for a specified node type or node name. For example:
node() matches any type of node.text() matches text or CDATA nodes.comment() matches comment nodes.processing-instruction() matches any processing instruction.processing-instruction(name) matches processing instructions whose target is name.* matches any elements or any attributes.XPath 2.0 adds additional tests, such as
In addition, you can follow the node test with any number of filters.