XPath: Navigating XML with XPath 1.0 and 2.0 Kick Start

Chapter 2. The XPath Data Model

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding the XPath 1.0 Data Types

• Understanding Nodes

• Node Names

• Node String Values

• Document Order

• Working with Node-Sets

• XPath Node Trees

• XPath and XML Infosets

• DOM Level 3 XPath

• In Brief

Understanding the XPath 1.0 Data Types

To let you work with the contents of an XML document, XPath lets you model the data in that document in a specific way called the data model. The data model specifies how XPath sees a document, and that's essential to know if you want XPath to find the data you're looking for.

For example, if you have an XML document and want to pick out all the <friend> elements, you need to know how XPath sees that document to be able to instruct it to do what you want. In this chapter, we're going ...