How to use "not" in XPath?

Question

I want to write something of the sort:

//a[not contains(@id, 'xx')]

(meaning all the links who's 'id' attribute doesn't contain the string 'xx')

I can't find the right syntax.

score 279 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 01 '21 at 19:44

279

not() is a function in XPath (as opposed to an operator), so

//a[not(contains(@id, 'xx'))]

edited Apr 01 '21 at 19:44

Syscall

answered Oct 11 '09 at 15:45

James Sulak

is there a way to say grab all the
tags but not the tag inside them? imagine something like
text text TEXTtext text
. i want all the text in p but not the TEXT in a. is that possible with XPath? This isn't exactly my case, it's a little more complicated than that but its more or less the same.
– CodeMonkey Sep 03 '19 at 13:07
@Ali Does `ORDERED_NODE_ITERATOR_TYPE` of `./text()|./*[not(self::a)]//text()`, passing the paragraph in as the `contextNode`, solve your use-case? \([jsfiddle demo](https://jsfiddle.net/fkg14a26/)\) *(note this won't exclude cases of `p>* a`, where the link isn't top-level, but it could easily be modified to do so.)* – JamesTheAwesomeDude Sep 13 '22 at 20:24

Abdelhameed Mahmoud · Answer 2 · 2012-05-17T12:16:03.610

42

you can use not(expression) function

or

expression != true()

edited May 17 '12 at 12:16

answered Jan 05 '12 at 13:32

Harun ERGUL · Answer 3 · 2017-03-17T14:59:42.847

19

None of these answers worked for me for python. I solved by this

a[not(@id='XX')]

Also you can use or condition in your xpath by | operator. Such as

a[not(@id='XX')]|a[not(@class='YY')]

Sometimes we want element which has no class. So you can do like

a[not(@class)]

edited Mar 17 '17 at 14:59

answered Mar 17 '17 at 14:48

Harun ERGUL

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 04 '19 at 06:13

2

Use boolean function like below:

//a[(contains(@id, 'xx'))=false]

answered Nov 04 '19 at 06:13

frianH

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 02 '23 at 12:40

0

not() function combined with "and" operator worked in my case. I am using typescript. For example,

contains(text(),'textIWantToBeMatched') and not(contains(text(),'subTextIDoNotWantToBeMatched'))

edited Aug 02 '23 at 12:40

toyota Supra

answered Jul 27 '23 at 02:24

user22291669

5 Answers5