A query language that allows for navigation through elements and attributes in an XML document. XPath is used to select nodes in an XML document, which can be thought of as a way of identifying parts of an XML document that match certain criteria. This selection is often used with XSLT (for transforming XML documents) and XQuery (for querying XML data). Using XPath, one can address parts of an XML document by defining a path expression that specifies the node or set of nodes to be selected. It's a fundamental technology in the stack of XML technologies. It is widely used in various applications where XML data is a standard, such as in web development for sitemaps, RSS/ATOM feeds, SOAP and more.
XML Path Language
XPath is an expression language designed to support the query or transformation of XML documents. It was defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1999, and can be used to compute values (e.g., strings, numbers, or Boolean values) from the content of an XML document.
- Support: Available in applications that support XML, such as web browsers, and many programming languages.
- Tree representation: Based on a tree representation of the XML document, providing the ability to navigate around the tree, selecting nodes by a variety of criteria.
Applications
XPath is widely used in various applications where XML data is a standard, such as in web development for sitemaps, RSS/ATOM feeds, SOAP and more.
