How to use variables in Velocity XPath expressions?

Question

If I provide constant "1" in rollnumber[1]

/root/person/rollnumber[1]

XPath evaluates fine.

But instead of a constant, I want to provide some variable

/root/person/rollnumber[$i]

where $i can be any integer.

This XPath expression does not work.

I am writing this xpath in velocity tempalte. so, i can set it #set($i = 1) — ankit, Apr 28 '16 at 05:30
Since `$i` is a velocity template's variable, I strongly suspect this is velocity-specific question. XPath 1.0 itself doesn't have notion of `$` variable — har07, Apr 28 '16 at 05:44
Yes you are right. seems like xpath doesn't have notion of $ variable. i saw one eg which says $ can be used. but it's not working. — ankit, Apr 28 '16 at 06:35

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

0

The usual trick is to assemble the XPath using string formatting or concatenation within the hosting language environment.

Try this in Velocity:

#set($xp = "/root/person/rollnumber[${i}]")

Then use $xp in place of the string literal in your XPath call.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Community

answered Apr 28 '16 at 16:33

kjhughes

1 Answers1