Extract value of attribute node via XPath

Question

How can I extract the value of an attribute node via XPath?

A sample XML file is:

<parents name='Parents'>
  <Parent id='1' name='Parent_1'>
    <Children name='Children'>
      <child name='Child_2' id='2'>child2_Parent_1</child>
      <child name='Child_4' id='4'>child4_Parent_1</child>
      <child name='Child_1' id='3'>child1_Parent_1</child>
      <child name='Child_3' id='1'>child3_Parent_1</child>
    </Children>
  </Parent>
  <Parent id='2' name='Parent_2'>
    <Children name='Children'>
      <child name='Child_1' id='8'>child1_parent2</child>
      <child name='Child_2' id='7'>child2_parent2</child>
      <child name='Child_4' id='6'>child4_parent2</child>
      <child name='Child_3' id='5'>child3_parent2</child>
    </Children>
  </Parent>
</parents>

So far I have this XPath string:

//Parent[@id='1']/Children/child[@name]

It returns only child elements, but I would like to have the value of the name attribute.

For my sample XML file, here's what I'd like the output to be:

Child_2
Child_4
Child_1
Child_3

Possible duplicate of [Getting attribute using XPath](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4531995/getting-attribute-using-xpath) — tripleee, Dec 03 '15 at 08:53

score 405 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 02 '13 at 22:15

405

//Parent[@id='1']/Children/child/@name

Your original child[@name] means an element child which has an attribute name. You want child/@name.

edited Jan 02 '13 at 22:15

Rory O'Kane

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answered Jan 29 '11 at 08:33

lweller

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I agree, the question was how to get the value of the attribute – Vladtn Apr 16 '13 at 19:24
8

What if i would like to extract only the value/description/data present in between the tags .... – Dinu Duke Feb 22 '17 at 07:52

score 176 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 11 '17 at 14:49

176

To get just the value (without attribute names), use string():

string(//Parent[@id='1']/Children/child/@name)

The fn:string() fucntion will return the value of its argument as xs:string. In case its argument is an attribute, it will therefore return the attribute's value as xs:string.

edited Dec 11 '17 at 14:49

Flow

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answered Jun 05 '13 at 19:04

acdcjunior

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With `xqilla` it was necessary to call `xs:string`. I wonder why. – krlmlr Jul 22 '13 at 20:00
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@krlmlr Probably `xs` is the namespace prefix for the XPath functions. So they are not mixed up with others. – acdcjunior Jul 22 '13 at 20:16
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LOL. This is the only answer that actually answers the question. +1 – james.garriss Jul 10 '18 at 16:49
13

This will provide only the first hit in xmllint – crazyduck Jun 27 '19 at 12:57
13

What if I have a list of attributes and I need their values? string() seems to return just the first value. – Konstantin Milyutin Sep 18 '19 at 19:24
For me, it only worked this way: `//Parent[@id='1']/Children/child/string(@name)` – Kipr Jun 14 '23 at 12:11

Vinod Srivastav · Answer 3 · 2018-06-23T12:18:26.293

10

As answered above:

//Parent[@id='1']/Children/child/@name

will only output the name attribute of the 4 child nodes belonging to the Parent specified by its predicate [@id=1]. You'll then need to change the predicate to [@id=2] to get the set of child nodes for the next Parent.

However, if you ignore the Parent node altogether and use:

//child/@name

you can select name attribute of all child nodes in one go.

name="Child_2"
name="Child_4"
name="Child_1"
name="Child_3"
name="Child_1"
name="Child_2"
name="Child_4"
name="Child_3"

edited Jun 23 '18 at 12:18

answered Mar 01 '16 at 15:28

Vinod Srivastav

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Yes ... but the question is how to return only the attribute value: `Child_2` etc. The reason I'm here is I managed to get as far as you got, I want just the attribute values, I used Google, and arrived at this question. – reinierpost Sep 05 '22 at 08:02
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@reinierpost It depend the xml engine in use if you see here http://xpather.com/VZDuaXsb and in javascript its just `node.text` https://stackoverflow.com/a/35726551/3057246 – Vinod Srivastav Nov 09 '22 at 20:10

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 11 '15 at 03:38

9

You should use //Parent[@id='1']/Children/child/data(@name)

The attributes can not be serialized so you can't return them in an xml looking result. What you need to do is obtain the data from the attribute using data() function.

edited Aug 11 '15 at 03:38

abatishchev

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answered Jun 10 '15 at 11:00

Natalia Maciejowska

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data() function on an attribute gives the error "XPath error : Invalid expression" in xmllint. – codesniffer Sep 01 '20 at 14:01

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 30 '15 at 08:28

6

//Parent/Children[@  Attribute='value']/@Attribute

This is the case which can be used where element is having 2 attribute and we can get the one attribute with the help of another one.

edited Jan 30 '15 at 08:28

Soner Gönül

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answered Jan 30 '15 at 08:10

Akshay Dubey

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score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 27 '19 at 03:17

6

for all xml with namespace use local-name()

//*[local-name()='Parent'][@id='1']/*[local-name()='Children']/*[local-name()='child']/@name

answered Jun 27 '19 at 03:17

Ed Bangga

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score 4 · Answer 7 · edited Aug 11 '15 at 03:38

4

@ryenus, You need to loop through the result. This is how I'd do it in vbscript;

Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument")
xmlDoc.setProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"
xmlDoc.load("kids.xml")

'Remove the id=1 attribute on Parent to return all child names for all Parent nodes
For Each c In xmlDoc.selectNodes ("//Parent[@id='1']/Children/child/@name")
    Wscript.Echo c.text
Next

edited Aug 11 '15 at 03:38

abatishchev

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answered May 22 '13 at 13:40

NickC

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score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 12 '20 at 16:52

Here is the standard formula to extract the values of attribute and text using XPath-

To extract attribute value for Web Element-

elementXPath/@attributeName
To extract text value for Web Element-

elementXPath/text()

In your case here is the xpath which will return

//parent[@name='Parent_1']//child/@name

It will return:

Child_2
Child_4
Child_1
Child_3

Extract value of attribute node via XPath

8 Answers8

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