XPATH expression for finding a non-empty node element data

Question

I need to find a(only one) XML node which is having non-empty data. How to do this.

XML:

<root>
<tuple >
    <old>
        <a>
            <b></b>
        </a>
    </old>
</tuple>
<tuple >
    <old>
        <a>
            <b>http://google.com</b>
        </a>
    </old>
</tuple>
<tuple >
    <old>
        <a>
            <b>http://google.com</b>
        </a>
    </old>
</tuple>
</root>

XPATH I used:

/root/tuple/old/a/b[text() and not(//a/b/text())]

and

/root/tuple/old/a/b[string-length(text())>0]/text()

But for the above xpath expressions I am getting all the nodes which are non-empty, What I am doing wrong.

in this example all the elements except the first b are non-empty because they contain whitespace text nodes (the new lines and indentation). — Ian Roberts
– Ian Roberts, Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 9:21

Jirka Š. · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-27 07:34:25Z

4

You could use following XPath

/root/tuple/old/a/b[normalize-space(.) = ''][1]

I presume that whitespaces are not important for you (so I use normalize-space() function). The dot means actual element (i.e. <b>).

As you say you need just only one element so for the case there are more suitable elements I select only the first one ([1])

answered Nov 27, 2013 at 7:34

Jirka Š.

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1 Comment

Ian Roberts Over a year ago

You've got the test backwards - you're finding the empty b elements rather than the non-empty ones. And (when that's fixed) it will still give you two results (the second and third b elements) because they're both the first non-empty b in their respective parents. If you only want one result you need parentheses (/root/tuple/old/a/b[normalize-space()])[1]

anirudh · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-27 11:03:17Z

0

You can use the following Xpath to check if the element has value.

boolean(/root/tuple[position()=2]/old/a/b[text() and string-length()>0])

The above path returns true if the element has text

Remove the boolean function to get the actual text as shown below.

/root/tuple[position()=2]/old/a/b[text() and string-length()>0]

Hope this helps.

answered Nov 27, 2013 at 11:03

anirudh

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