Escaping special characters inside XPATH

Question

I have some elements with the tag <xxx:element> inside my xml.

I want to get these using XPath. I've tried a few ways of getting them but so far unsuccessful.

//xxx:element just doesn't return anything. I'm guessing this is because of the : characater
//#xxx:element# gives the exception: "A location step was expected following the '/' or '//' token."
//'xxx:element' same exception.

Any suggestions?

Based on choroba's answer I found Xml Namespace breaking my xpath!

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 22 '13 at 12:06

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The xxx: part is a namespace prefix. It should work in XPath, but depending on the language you are using, you might need to register the namespace before you can use it.

answered Jan 22 '13 at 12:06

choroba

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Not related to this question - Can `x/y[position()=1 or position()= 2]` expression be write in more simple way in `Xpath1.0` and `2.0` also? – Arup Rakshit Aug 27 '13 at 20:29
@Babai: Do you mean `x/y[position()<3]` ? – choroba Aug 27 '13 at 22:53
That's cool.. But if `x/y[position()=1 or position()= 5]` then? – Arup Rakshit Aug 27 '13 at 22:54

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 22 '13 at 12:34

2

Found a solution using the local-name property. The following works just fine:
//*[local-name()='element']

answered Jan 22 '13 at 12:34

Deelazee

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 21 '13 at 07:33

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In saxon //*:element do the trick to me

answered Mar 21 '13 at 07:33

anyone

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Escaping special characters inside XPATH

3 Answers3

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