Check if a node exist in XML using XPath in Java

Question

I have different forms of XML that I must analyse,

<AMDI>
...
<MI>
</MI>
</AMDI>

or

<AMDI>
...
<AD>
</AD>
</AMDI>

So I want to build an XPath query depending of the type of the node (if it's an MI : XML_ITEMS = "//MI/DL/D", if it's an AD : XML_ITEMS = "//AD/DL/D") I'm working with DocumentBuilder and XPathExpression. Thnx for the help :)

Marouane Gazanayi · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-29 12:38:45Z

2

You can also list the different nodes like this :

Node node = doc.getDocumentElement();
NodeList type = node.getChildNodes();
for(int i=0; i<nodes.getLength();i++)
     System.out.println(type.item(i).getNodeName();

And choose the write node :) Thanx a lot

answered Jun 29, 2010 at 12:38

Marouane Gazanayi

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1 Comment

john_science Over a year ago

Above you write "nodes.getLength()", do you mean "type.getLength()"?

Dimitre Novatchev · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-29 12:50:58Z

2

In XPath 1.0:

//MI/DL/D  |   //AD/DL/D

This is not syntactically legal in XPath 1.0:

//(MI|AD)/DL/D

But you may use it in case you have an XPath 2.0 engine.

answered Jun 29, 2010 at 12:50

Dimitre Novatchev

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2 Comments

Marouane Gazanayi Over a year ago

Thnx :) I should work more XPath, but just as a question, is XPath the best way to parse an XML Document ????

Dimitre Novatchev Over a year ago

@taichimaro: XPath is the best way to search within an XML document. XPath works on XML documents that are already parsed by an XML parser.

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