Chapter 8. JXPath
JXPath allows you to traverse complex graphs of objects quickly and tersely, using the W3C standard XPath syntax (http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath, and a tutorial is available at http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/). Although XPath was originally designed to provide a standardized mechanism for dealing with complex XML documents, JXPath extends the XPath syntax to support dealing with a wide variety of complex Java data types.
To understand the use of JXPath, start by considering a simple hierarchical structure of people. These people are described by Java objects based on the Person class, as shown in Figure 8-1. Notice that each Person has a gender at a minimum and optionally a mother, father, and children.
Figure 8-1. Person class.
Given ...
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