XPath on an XML document with namespace

Question

I'm having this XML document with namespaces and I want to extract some nodes using XPath.

Here's the document:

<ArrayOfAnyType xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://tempuri.org/">
  <anyType xsi:type="Document">
    <Id>5</Id>
    <Title>T1</Title>
  </anyType>

  <anyType xsi:type="Document">
    <Id>15</Id>
    <Title>T15</Title>
  </anyType>
</ArrayOfAnyType>

What's the XPath expression going to be if I want to extract all "anyType" elements with xsi:type="Document"?

I've tried this:

//anyType[@xsi:type="Document"]

and it doesn't work:

which version of xpath are you using? xpath versions handle namespaces differently? — Jeremy French
– Jeremy French, Commented Feb 18, 2009 at 16:32
Duped: - stackoverflow.com/questions/536441/… - stackoverflow.com/questions/11345/xpaths-and-default-namespaces - stackoverflow.com/questions/103576/… — annakata
– annakata, Commented Feb 18, 2009 at 16:47
Looks like I have to say: '//xmlns:anyType[@xsi:type="Document"]' for it to work — EnToutCas
– EnToutCas, Commented Feb 18, 2009 at 17:19

David · Accepted Answer · 2009-02-18 16:38:13Z

18

If you are using C# then you need to specify the namespace for the "anyType" element in your XPath:

var xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.LoadXml( "your xml" );
var names = new XmlNamespaceManager( xml.NameTable );
names.AddNamespace( "xsi", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" );
names.AddNamespace( "a", "http://tempuri.org/" );
var nodes = xml.SelectNodes( "//a:anyType[@xsi:type='Document']", names );

answered Feb 18, 2009 at 16:38

David

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3 Comments

jcollum Over a year ago

What is up with a:anyType? Is that some sort of magic value?

David Over a year ago

No, that's the name of the XML element being sought in the above question.

jcollum Over a year ago

ah, I see, didn't scroll over far enough

Jeremy French · Accepted Answer · 2009-02-18 17:02:10Z

0

I think that

//anyType[namespace-uri() = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"][local-name() = "type"]

Will do what you want.

answered Feb 18, 2009 at 17:02

Jeremy French

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1 Comment

EnToutCas Over a year ago

Thanks, I think what's wrong in my original expression is I need to prefix anyType with the namespace "xmlns".

Bruno B · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-14 10:12:43Z

0

This way you don't need to specify namespace:

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXml("your xml");
XmlNode node = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/*[local-name() = 'anyType']");
XmlNode nodeToImport = xmlDoc2.ImportNode(node, true);
xmlDoc2.AppendChild(nodeToImport);

answered Feb 14, 2018 at 10:12

Bruno B

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Comments

Andro Selva · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-01 06:58:02Z

-1

Had nearly the same problem, I forgot to add the correct namespace for xsi:type (http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance) was using http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema and I did never get any result - now it is working the following way:

<xsl:value-of select="/item1/item2/item3/@xsi:type"></xsl:value-of>

edited Dec 1, 2012 at 6:58

Andro Selva

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answered Jan 26, 2011 at 13:32

CodeMonkey

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