How to select multiple nodes from XML with XPath?

Question

What is the XPath syntax that returns multiple nodes from XML?

Say I have XML like so:

<Contacts>
  <Contact>
    <Name>
      <FirstName>Andre</FirstName>
      <LastName>Levy</LastName>
    </Name>
    <DOB>
      <Year>1970</Year>
      <Month>5</Month>
      <Day>13</Day>
    </DOB>
  </Contact>
  <Contact>
    <Name>
      <FirstName>Bob</FirstName>
      <LastName>Fisher</LastName>
    </Name>
    <DOB>
      <Year>1983</Year>
      <Month>7</Month>
      <Day>24</Day>
    </DOB>
  </Contact>
</Contacts>

What XPath will give me:

<Contacts>
  <Contact>
    <FirstName>Andre</FirstName>
    <Year>1970</Year>
  </Contact>
  <Contact>
    <FirstName>Bob</FirstName>
    <Year>1983</Year>
  </Contact>
</Contacts>

I tried: //FirstName | //Year

But that only yields:

<FirstName>Andre</FirstName>
<FirstName>Bob</FirstName>
<Year>1970</Year>
<Year>1983</Year>

What gives?

Not sure about XPath 2, but not possible in XPath 1. You can extract parts of the original document, but you can't reshuffle it. — choroba
– choroba, Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 22:59
Sounds like a XSLT task. See stackoverflow.com/questions/2914843/… and stackoverflow.com/questions/22838074/…. — alecxe
– alecxe, Commented Oct 11, 2014 at 23:01

kjhughes · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-12 04:48:53Z

3

**You can select multiple nodes in XPath, but you cannot re-arrange XML in the manner exhibited in your requested output.**

Also note:

Your sample XML is not well-formed; it must have a single root element.
You can indeed select multiple nodes as your title question asks using the union operator | you suggest, however...
Your desired XML is not available for selection, which XPath does, but it could be constructed via transformation, which XSLT does (provided you're willing to wrap the desired XML in a single enclosing root element).

answered Oct 12, 2014 at 4:48

kjhughes

113k31 gold badges198 silver badges276 bronze badges

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

2 Comments

André Levy Over a year ago

Ok, I've added the single root element. Is that what you meant?

kjhughes Over a year ago

Yes, that covers #1, but that's the easy part; understand that #3 is the hard part. You need to use XSLT or another language hosting XPath when you want to rearrange that which you select via XPath.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to select multiple nodes from XML with XPath?

1 Answer 1

**You can select multiple nodes in XPath, but you cannot re-arrange XML in the manner exhibited in your requested output.**

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

You can select multiple nodes in XPath, but you cannot re-arrange XML in the manner exhibited in your requested output.

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related

**You can select multiple nodes in XPath, but you cannot re-arrange XML in the manner exhibited in your requested output.**