Why is this xpath returning an empty nodeset?

Question

Here is the XML:

    <recordTarget>
        <patientRole>
          <patient>
           <religiousAffiliationCode code="1013" displayName="Christian (non-Catholic, non-specific)" codeSystem="2.16.840.1.113883.5.1076" codeSystemName="HL7 Religious Affiliation"/>
   </patient>
</patientRole>
</recordTarget>

Here is my xpath statement (n1 is namespace)

<xsl:variable name="religion" select="n1:recordTarget/n1:patientRole/n1:patient/n1:religiousAffilliationCode/@displayName"/>

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

0

The result of evaluating your XPath against your XML depends upon factors you've not told us.

It is dependent upon

the current context since it is a relative XPath.
the definition of the n1 namespace prefix being consistently defined in the XML and in the language hosting the XPath. See How does XPath deal with XML namespaces?
the namespace of recordTarget, patientRole, etc, which cannot be determined without seeing their full heritage.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

Community

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answered Mar 10 '17 at 21:57

kjhughes

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I only included a small amount of the XML, but current context is correct, namespace n1 is defined. Michael Kay has a sharp eye. It is a spelling error. – B Hale Mar 12 '17 at 16:27

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 11 '17 at 00:08

0

Check the spelling of religiousAffiliationCode.

(Incidentally, the only real defence against spelling mistakes in path expressions is to use the schema-awareness features in XSLT 2.0, which if you take advantage of them correctly give you compile-time checking that the paths make sense with respect to the schema. This is particularly relevant when using a vocabulary like HL7 where the names tend to be long and tortuous.)

answered Mar 11 '17 at 00:08

Michael Kay

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You have a sharp eye my friend. Thanks! – B Hale Mar 12 '17 at 16:27

Why is this xpath returning an empty nodeset?

2 Answers2