Xpath query for finding nested element

Question

I am having a difficult time figuring out why I'm not getting any result with this basic 2-part xpath example, and I've used Chrome's XPath Helper to confirm that the 2nd xpath Query is indeed correct and does return the row I am seeking. Can someone shed some light into why it's producing an empty result? In this example, I'm expecting to get the table row with BNY as the currency code, which is China's Yuan Renminbi. In general, I would want the table row data for any currency code that is requested, or an empty result if the currency code is not in the table.

I've also tried performing the 2nd xpath query immediately after the html load (bypassing the xpath query to retrieve JUST the table), but that's returning ALL the rows. I feel like there's something fundamentally wrong I'm doing here, but I haven't been able to discover it, as Chrome's XPath Helper works fine.

    $ccode = 'CNY';
    // Create a DOM object
    $html = new simple_html_dom();

    $url = "http://www.xe.com/symbols.php";
    // Load HTML from a URL
    $html->load_file($url);

    $table = $html->find('table.currencySymblTable', 0);        
    $xpathQuery = '//table/tbody/tr/td[2][text() = "'.$ccode.'"]/..';
    echo $xpathQuery;
    $tr = $table->find($xpathQuery);
    print_r($tr);

I've provided a couple more sentences to the end of my post to explain what I'm trying to do, thanks. — Mike T
– Mike T, Commented May 2, 2017 at 4:48
SimpleHtmlDom is not a real W3C DOM implementation. Different API and no Xpath (just a subset of CSS selectors). — ThW
– ThW, Commented May 4, 2017 at 7:12

Sahil Gulati · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-02 05:04:15Z

1

You are using wrong currency code it should be CNY and you are using wrong

XPATH should be this table[@class="currencySymblTable"]/tr/td[2][text()="CNY"]/parent::tr

 <?php

ini_set('display_errors', 1);

libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$htmlContent = file_get_contents("http://www.xe.com/symbols.php");
$object = new DOMDocument();
$object->loadHTML($htmlContent);
$xpath = new DOMXPath($object);
$xpathQuery = '//table[@class="currencySymblTable"]/tr/td[2][text()="CNY"]/parent::tr';
$results = $xpath->query($xpathQuery);
foreach ($results as $result)
{
    print_r($result);
}

Output:

DOMElement Object
(
    [tagName] => tr
    [schemaTypeInfo] => 
    [nodeName] => tr
    [nodeValue] => China Yuan RenminbiCNYÂ¥Â¥165a5  info
    [nodeType] => 1
    [parentNode] => (object value omitted)
    [childNodes] => (object value omitted)
    [firstChild] => (object value omitted)
    [lastChild] => (object value omitted)
    [previousSibling] => (object value omitted)
    [nextSibling] => (object value omitted)
    [attributes] => (object value omitted)
    [ownerDocument] => (object value omitted)
    [namespaceURI] => 
    [prefix] => 
    [localName] => tr
    [baseURI] => 
    [textContent] => China Yuan RenminbiCNYÂ¥Â¥165a5    info
)

edited May 2, 2017 at 5:04

answered May 2, 2017 at 4:58

Sahil Gulati

15.2k4 gold badges28 silver badges43 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Mike T Over a year ago

That's actually just a typo, CNY doesn't work either. Also tried /parent::tr instead of /.. at the end of the query, still comes up empty.

Mike T Over a year ago

Yep, it works. I'm trying to use simple_html_dom, but that's fine, I don't really care. Thank you!

Mike T Over a year ago

/.. at the end works as well. Not sure why simple_html_dom isn't playing well with xpath query, as I've used it in the past, but I just really need the end result, not how I achieved it. Thanks again.

Sahil Gulati Over a year ago

@MikeT which end result?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Xpath query for finding nested element

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related