XPath selecting on subnodes

[Hapsdog]

Hi,

I have the following XML:

<a>
<b>
<c name="bob"/>
<c name="billy"/>
</b>
<b>
<c name="george"/>
<c name="nick"/>
</b>
</a>

I'm trying to write an XPath-expression to get this XML:

<b>
<c name="billy"/>
</b>
<b>
<c name="george"/>
<c name="nick"/>
</b>

but I can't get it right.

I have tried /a/b/c[@name != 'bob']/.. but it does not work. I know
why, but I don't know how to fix it.

Any help is appreciated.

/Bent

[Oleg Tkachenko [MVP]]

Hapsdog wrote:

I have the following XML:

<a>
<b>
<c name="bob"/>
<c name="billy"/>
</b>
<b>
<c name="george"/>
<c name="nick"/>
</b>
</a>

I'm trying to write an XPath-expression to get this XML:

<b>
<c name="billy"/>
</b>
<b>
<c name="george"/>
<c name="nick"/>
</b>

but I can't get it right.

You can't. XPath is selection language and what you need is filtering.
Once you select node b you get it as is with all children nodes.
A simple XSLT script could do the job:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<!-- Identity transform -->
<xsl:template match="@*|node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<!-- Filter this one out -->
<xsl:template match="c[@name='bob']"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

--
Oleg Tkachenko [XML MVP, MCPD]
http://blog.tkachenko.com | http://www.XmlLab.Net | http://www.XLinq.Net