// inside a predicate behaves like /descendant:: ???

[schmidlinF]

I this a bug or a feature of xpath?

the following xpath:

Code: Select all

/A/B[//C='want']

on the following XML:

Code: Select all

<A>

  <B><C>don't want</C></B>

  <B><C>want</C></B>

  <B><C>don't want</C></B>

</A>

returns 3 nodes instead of just the one.

to get the result I want I need to use

Code: Select all

 /A/B[descendant::C='want']

I though

Code: Select all

//

was equivalent to

Code: Select all

descendant:: 

but inside a predicate it seems to be equivalent to

/descendant::

, i.e. select descendant nodes of the root element??

Have I missed something?

PS: example kept deliberately simple: please do not tell me I do not need // to get what I want

[sorin_ristache]

Hello,

I though

Code: Select all

//

was equivalent to

Code: Select all

descendant:: 

but inside a predicate it seems to be equivalent to

/descendant::

, i.e. select descendant nodes of the root element??

Have I missed something?

It is equivalent to /descendant-or-self::node()/ as you can read in the XPath specification:

// is short for /descendant-or-self::node()/. For example, //para is short for /descendant-or-self::node()/child::para and so will select any para element in the document

Regards,
Sorin