Seek xpath expression where an attribute name is a regular expression

[GIMME]

For starters ....

If :

//input[@name='start_date']

is the xpath syntax to see if an element with an attribute
named start_date exists ...

Then what is the xpath syntax to return elements having
an attribute named '*date*' .

That is there a way to turn start_date into a regular expression?

Thanks!

[Martin Honnen]

GIMME wrote:

For starters ....

If :

//input[@name='start_date']

is the xpath syntax to see if an element with an attribute
named start_date exists ...
No, that expression looks for <input> elements at all levels that have
an attribute named 'name' that has the value 'start_date'.
You will be able to look for for elements with an attribute named
'start_date' with the XPath expression
//input[@start_date]
Then what is the xpath syntax to return elements having
an attribute named '*date*' .

That is there a way to turn start_date into a regular expression?

XPath 1.0 doesn't support any regular expressions, there are however
some string functions like contains so could try
//input[contains(local-name(@*), 'date')]
with the example XML being

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
<input date="2004-01-01" />
<input start_date="2004-01-01" />
<input date_final="2004-10-10" />
<input att="Kibology" />
<input />
</root>

the above XPath selects

<input date="2004-01-01" />
<input start_date="2004-01-01" />
<input date_final="2004-10-10" />
--

Martin Honnen
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/

[GIMME]

Thanks Martin.

This is very helpful.