How to select element missing an attribute value via XPath?

Question

For example: I want to find the keywords without node id="year", and return "Train":

<r>
<keywords>
    <node id="family" keyref="Transport"></node>
    <node id="product" keyref="Car"></node>
    <node id="year" keyref="2017"></node>
</keywords>

<keywords>
    <node id="family" keyref="Transport"></node> 
    <node id="product" keyref="Train"></node>       <- FIND THIS
</keywords>

<keywords>
    <node id="family" keyref="Transport"></node>
    <node id="product" keyref="Bike"></node>
    <node id="year" keyref="2017"></node>
</keywords>
</r>

Possible duplicate of [XPath to select Element by attribute value](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14248063/xpath-to-select-element-by-attribute-value) — Andersson, Aug 01 '18 at 11:47

kjhughes · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-01T13:08:31.917

1

This XPath,

//node[not(@id="year")]

will select all node elements that do not have a @id="year" attribute value. You can append /@keyref if you only want the keyref attribute.

This XPath,

//keywords[not(node/@id="year")]

will select all keywords elements that do not have a node child element with @id="year".

edited Aug 01 '18 at 13:08

answered Aug 01 '18 at 13:00

kjhughes

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How to select element missing an attribute value via XPath?

1 Answers1