9

I have a xml like

<root xmlns:ns1="http://foo">
    <ns1:child1>Text</ns1:child1>
    <ns1:child2>Number</ns1:child2>
</root>

Now I get this from different persons, so that for example person 2 sends me another message with the same structure like

<root xmlns:anotherNs="http://foo">
    <anotherNs:child1>Another Text</anotherNs:child1>
    <anotherNs:child2>Another Number</anotherNs:child2>
</root>

So the only difference is the name of the namespace. How can I select the content of child2 for both xml's with one XPath expression?

Something like "/root/child2" or "//child2" did not work.

Hauke
  • 223
  • 1
  • 4
  • 13

2 Answers2

22

Use the local-name() function like so:

//*[local-name()='child2']
Sebastian Brosch
  • 42,106
  • 15
  • 72
  • 87
JWiley
  • 3,129
  • 8
  • 41
  • 66
1

You can bind any prefix you like (say banana) to the namespace "http://foo", and the expression /root/banana:child2 will find the child2 element, regardless what namespace prefix has been used in the source document. Only the namespace URI has to match.

Michael Kay
  • 156,231
  • 11
  • 92
  • 164