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This topic provides a quick reference for XPath expression syntax.
XPath provides the following axes:
XPath provides the following node tests:
* selects all nodes of the specified name. For the attribute axis, attributes are selected. For the namespace axis, namespace nodes are selected. For all other axes, element nodes are selected. comment() selects all comment nodes.node() selects all nodes.processing-instruction(["some_literal"]) selects all processing instructions. If some_literal is specified, processing-instruction() selects all processing instructions with some_literal as their name. text() selects all text nodes.A filter specifies a constraint on a node set with respect to an axis to produce a new node set.
A location step has the following format:
An XPath expression has one of the following formats:
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.