GPath expression for finding all attribute values by name

Question

Looking for GPath expression to get list of attribute values using the attribute name:

def xmltxt = """<reports>
    <report category="weather">sunny</report>
    <report category="sports">golf</report>
    <report category="business">
      <subreport category="deals">wallstreet</subreport>
    </report>
    <report>NA</report>
    <report category="life">gossip</report>
 </reports>"""

..when searching for all category attributes, I want to get back this, regardless of where category attributes exists in the document:

[weather, sports, business, deals, life]

...but all my attempts retrieve more than what I want, appears it's returning nodes that don't have category attributes; I can remove the empty elements from the list, but I'd like to know why this is happening.

[, weather, sports, business, deals, , life]

  def names = xml.'**'.findAll{
     it.@category        
  }.collect{
     it.@category
  }

It's happening because you're asking to collect categories, which will be null if there isn't a category. You're not asking it to filter based on the presence of categories, so you also collect the nulls. — Dave Newton, Jun 01 '14 at 02:10
I can filter based on element names in `findAll` using `it.name() == 'some_name'`, but what's the equivalent for attribute names? I've tried so many combinations I'm seeing pink elephants in my living room. — raffian, Jun 01 '14 at 02:18

dmahapatro · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-01T02:36:06.257

4

def parsed = new XmlParser().parseText( xmltxt )
parsed.'**'*.attribute( 'category' ).findAll()

should do.

Here you go, with XmlSlurper solution:

def parsed = new XmlSlurper().parseText( xmltxt )
parsed.'**'*.attributes().findResults { it.category }

edited Jun 01 '14 at 02:36

answered Jun 01 '14 at 02:22

dmahapatro

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need `XmlSlurper` solution :-) – raffian Jun 01 '14 at 02:27
Good you asked, I was about to add that as an update to asnwer. See my update. @raffian – dmahapatro Jun 01 '14 at 02:29
@raffian Minor modification to my update. `deals` was missing in the list earlier. – dmahapatro Jun 01 '14 at 02:36
You are the man! It worked!...just curious, if `'**'*.attributes()` works, why not `'**'*.elements()` too? – raffian Jun 01 '14 at 02:42
Because [NodeChild](http://groovy.codehaus.org/api/groovy/util/slurpersupport/NodeChild.html) has no property named `elements()`. – dmahapatro Jun 01 '14 at 03:00

GPath expression for finding all attribute values by name

1 Answers1