Using XPath, How do I select a node based on its text content and value of an attribute?

Question

Given this XML:

<DocText> <WithQuads>     <Page pageNumber="3">         <Word>             July             <Quad>                 <P1 X="84" Y="711.25" />                 <P2 X="102.062" Y="711.25" />                 <P3 X="102.062" Y="723.658" />                 <P4 X="84.0" Y="723.658" />             </Quad>         </Word>         <Word>         </Word>         <Word>             30,             <Quad>                 <P1 X="104.812" Y="711.25" />                 <P2 X="118.562" Y="711.25" />                 <P3 X="118.562" Y="723.658" />                 <P4 X="104.812" Y="723.658" />             </Quad>         </Word>     </Page> </WithQuads> 

I'd like to find the nodes that have text of 'July' and a Quad/P1/X attribute Greater than 90. Thus, in this case, it should not return any matches. However, if I use GT (>) or LT (<), I get a match on the first Word element. If I use eq (=), I get no match.

So:

//Word[text()='July' and //P1[@X < 90]] 

will return true, as will

//Word[text()='July' and //P1[@X > 90]] 

How do I constrain this properly on the P1@X attribute?

In addition, imagine I have multiple Page elements, for different page numbers. How would I additionally constrain the above search to find Nodes with text()='July', P1@X < 90, and Page@pageNumber=3?

Answer 1

Generally I would consider the use of an unprefixed // as a bad smell in an XPath.

Try this:-

/DocText/WithQuads/Page/Word[text()='July' and Quad/P1/@X > 90] 

Your problem is that you use the //P1[@X < 90] which starts back at the beginning of the document and starts hunting any P1 hence it will always be true. Similarly //P1[@X > 90] is always true.