How to check if an element exists in the XML using XPath?

Question

Below is my element hierarchy. How to check (using XPath) that AttachedXml element is present under CreditReport of Primary Consumer

<Consumers xmlns="http://xml.mycompany.com/XMLSchema">
       <Consumer subjectIdentifier="Primary">
          <DataSources>
               <Credit>
                   <CreditReport>
                      <AttachedXml><![CDATA[ blah blah]]>

What language are you using to run the XML and parse the XPath? The answer depends on that. — Jon Gauthier, Apr 16 '11 at 22:15
it is java engine (saxon) i believe that is being used inside SoapUI — Aravind Yarram, Apr 16 '11 at 22:21

Mads Hansen · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-17T00:35:31.217

96

Use the boolean() XPath function

The boolean function converts its argument to a boolean as follows:

a number is true if and only if it is neither positive or negative zero nor NaN

a node-set is true if and only if it is non-empty

a string is true if and only if its length is non-zero

an object of a type other than the four basic types is converted to a boolean in a way that is dependent on that type

If there is an AttachedXml in the CreditReport of primary Consumer, then it will return true().

boolean(/mc:Consumers
          /mc:Consumer[@subjectIdentifier='Primary']
            //mc:CreditReport/mc:AttachedXml)

edited Apr 17 '11 at 00:35

answered Apr 17 '11 at 00:04

Mads Hansen

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this is also returning true if AttachedXml is NOT PRESENT...what am I missing? – Aravind Yarram Apr 18 '11 at 14:56
It shouldn't. If it is returning `true()`, then the XPath is matching and selecting something. It should return `false()` if nothing is selected. – Mads Hansen Apr 18 '11 at 15:20
even worse: you will get false() if the node does not exist, but also if the node content evaluates to boolean false! – Enrice Aug 26 '23 at 07:28

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 16 '11 at 22:46

The Saxon documentation, though a little unclear, seems to suggest that the JAXP XPath API will return false when evaluating an XPath expression if no matching nodes are found.

This IBM article mentions a return value of null when no nodes are matched.

You might need to play around with the return types a bit based on this API, but the basic idea is that you just run a normal XPath and check whether the result is a node / false / null / etc.

XPathFactory xpathFactory = XPathFactory.newInstance(NamespaceConstant.OBJECT_MODEL_SAXON);
XPath xpath = xpathFactory.newXPath();
XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("/Consumers/Consumer/DataSources/Credit/CreditReport/AttachedXml");
Object result = expr.evaluate(doc, XPathConstants.NODE);

if ( result == null ) {
    // do something
}

Dimitre Novatchev · Answer 3 · 2011-04-17T00:53:32.163

6

Use:

boolean(/*/*[@subjectIdentifier="Primary"]/*/*/*/*
                           [name()='AttachedXml' 
                          and 
                            namespace-uri()='http://xml.mycompany.com/XMLSchema'
                           ]
       )

edited Apr 17 '11 at 00:53

answered Apr 17 '11 at 00:12

Dimitre Novatchev

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score 4 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

4

Normally when you try to select a node using xpath your xpath-engine will return null or equivalent if the node doesn't exists.

xpath: "/Consumers/Consumer/DataSources/Credit/CreditReport/AttachedXml"

If your using xsl check out this question for an answer:

xpath find if node exists

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

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answered Apr 16 '11 at 22:15

Simon Stender Boisen

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score -1 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 11 '13 at 00:56

-1

If boolean() is not available (the tool I'm using does not) one way to achieve it is:

//SELECT[@id='xpto']/OPTION[not(not(@selected))]

In this case, within the /OPTION, one of the options is the selected one. The "selected" does not have a value... it just exists, while the other OPTION do not have "selected". This achieves the objective.

edited Jun 11 '13 at 00:56

Boris Stitnicky

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answered Jun 11 '13 at 00:38

x_kiter

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This has nothing to do with the XML in question. – Mark Thomas Jun 11 '13 at 00:43

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 14 '17 at 11:39

take look at my example

<tocheading language="EN"> 
     <subj-group> 
         <subject>Editors Choice</subject> 
         <subject>creative common</subject> 
     </subj-group> 
</tocheading>

now how to check if creative common is exist

tocheading/subj-group/subject/text() = 'creative common'

hope this help you

How to check if an element exists in the XML using XPath?

6 Answers6

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