How do predicates work?

Predicates filter nodes: [@attr="value"] by attribute, [position()=1] or [1] by position, [text()="content"] by text. Combine with and/or. [price>10 and @available="true"]

Can I select by text content?

Yes. //p[text()="exact"] for exact match, //p[contains(text(),"partial")] for partial, //p[starts-with(text(),"prefix")] for prefix. normalize-space() handles whitespace.

How do I handle namespaces?

Register namespace prefixes in your XPath engine, then use them: //ns:element. Default namespaces require explicit prefix. Without registration, use local-name(): //*[local-name()="element"]

XPath Tester

Guide & TutorialOffline

Test XPath expressions against XML documents

XML Document

XPath Expression

Common XPath Patterns:

//element - All elements with name
/root/child - Direct child path
//element[@attr='value'] - Element with attribute
//element[position()=1] - First element
//element/text() - Text content

About XPath Tester

XPath tester evaluates XPath expressions against XML documents to query and navigate XML trees. XPath is a powerful query language for selecting nodes, filtering by attributes, traversing relationships, and extracting data from XML.

How It Works

Parse XML into DOM tree, then evaluate XPath expression. Navigate using axes (child, parent, ancestor, following-sibling), predicates ([condition]), functions (text(), contains(), count()). Return matching node set or value.

Technical Details

XPath 1.0 is widely supported, 2.0/3.0 add more features. Node types: element, attribute, text, comment, processing-instruction. Axes: child, parent, ancestor, descendant, following, preceding, self. Return types: node-set, string, number, boolean.

Common Use Cases

XML Parsing

Extract specific elements from XML.

//book[@category="tech"]/title

Web Scraping

Select HTML elements by structure.

//div[@class="content"]//p

XSLT Development

Test selectors before using in stylesheets.

Config Files

Query XML configuration files.

/config/database/host

Code Examples

XPath Evaluation

javascript

// Browser XPath API
const xml = `<library>
  <book category="tech" available="true">
    <title>JavaScript Guide</title>
    <author>John</author>
    <price>29.99</price>
  </book>
  <book category="fiction" available="false">
    <title>The Story</title>
    <author>Jane</author>
    <price>19.99</price>
  </book>
</library>`;

const parser = new DOMParser();
const doc = parser.parseFromString(xml, 'text/xml');

// Evaluate XPath
function xpath(expr, context = doc) {
  const result = doc.evaluate(
    expr, context, null,
    XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null
  );
  const nodes = [];
  for (let i = 0; i < result.snapshotLength; i++) {
    nodes.push(result.snapshotItem(i));
  }
  return nodes;
}

// Examples
xpath('//book/title');                           // All titles
xpath('//book[@category="tech"]');               // Tech books
xpath('//book[price>20]/title');                 // Titles of books over $20
xpath('//book[@available="true"]/author');       // Authors of available books
xpath('count(//book)');                          // Number of books (use NUMBER_TYPE)

// Get text content
xpath('//book[1]/title')[0].textContent;         // "JavaScript Guide"

Browser native XPath evaluation. For Node.js, use xmldom with xpath package.

Tips & Best Practices

Use // for descendant search, / for direct children
Predicates filter: [@attr="val"], [position], [condition]
text() gets text content, . gets current node
Combine with and/or for complex conditions
Register namespaces when working with namespaced XML

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using / when // is needed for deep search
Forgetting namespace handling
Wrong quote nesting in predicates
Assuming 1-based vs 0-based indexing (XPath is 1-based)
Not handling multiple matches

When to Use This Tool

Use XPath tester when parsing XML, testing XPath expressions for XSLT, web scraping HTML, or learning XPath syntax.

Frequently Asked Questions

/ selects direct children only. // selects descendants at any depth (descendant-or-self). //title finds all title elements anywhere, /root/title finds only direct children of root.

// Browser XPath API const xml = `<library> <book category="tech" available="true"> <title>JavaScript Guide</title> <author>John</author> <price>29.99</price> </book> <book category="fiction" available="false"> <title>The Story</title> <author>Jane</author> <price>19.99</price> </book> </library>`; const parser = new DOMParser(); const doc = parser.parseFromString(xml, 'text/xml'); // Evaluate XPath function xpath(expr, context = doc) { const result = doc.evaluate( expr, context, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null ); const nodes = []; for (let i = 0; i < result.snapshotLength; i++) { nodes.push(result.snapshotItem(i)); } return nodes; } // Examples xpath('//book/title'); // All titles xpath('//book[@category="tech"]'); // Tech books xpath('//book[price>20]/title'); // Titles of books over $20 xpath('//book[@available="true"]/author'); // Authors of available books xpath('count(//book)'); // Number of books (use NUMBER_TYPE) // Get text content xpath('//book[1]/title')[0].textContent; // "JavaScript Guide"