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Asked: 2026-06-13T01:58:04+00:00

<div n=a> . . . . . . <spec>red</spec> <div n=d> . . .

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<div n="a">
  . . . 
    . . .
      <spec>red</spec>
      <div n="d">
          . . . 
      </div>
      <spec>green</spec>
      . . .
         <div n="b">
            . . .
              <spec>blue</spec>
            . . .
         </div>
         <div n="c">
           <spec>yellow</spec>
         </div>
      . . .
    . . .
  . . .
</div>

[Edited to remove the ambiguity Sean noticed. — Thanks]

When the current element is <div n="a">, I need an XPATH expression that returns the red and green elements, but not the blue and yellow ones, as .//spec does.

When the current element is <div n="b">, the same expression needs to return the blue element; when <div n="c">, the yellow element.

Something like .//spec[but no deeper than another div if there is one]

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    In XSLT 1.0, assuming that the current node is a div:

    .//spec[generate-id(current())=generate-id(ancestor::div[1])]

    In XSLT 2.0 under the same assumptions:

    .//spec[ancestor::div[1] is current()]

    And a pure XPath 2.0 expression:

    for $this in .
     return
        $this//spec[ancestor::div[1] is $this]

    Full XSLT 1.0 transformation:

    <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="div">
  <div n="{@n}"/>
  <xsl:copy-of select=
   ".//spec[generate-id(current())=generate-id(ancestor::div[1])]"/>
==============
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="text()"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

    when applied on the provided XML document:

    <div n="a">
  . . .
    . . .
      <spec>red</spec>
      <spec>green</spec>
      . . .
         <div n="b">
            . . .
              <spec>blue</spec>
            . . .
         </div>
         <div n="c">
           <spec>yellow</spec>
         </div>
      . . .
    . . .
  . . .
</div>

    the wanted, correct result is produced:

    <div n="a"/>
<spec>red</spec>
<spec>green</spec>
==============
  <div n="b"/>
<spec>blue</spec>
==============
  <div n="c"/>
<spec>yellow</spec>
==============

    Full XSLT 2.0 transformation:

    <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="div">

  <div n="{@n}"/>
  <xsl:sequence select=".//spec[ancestor::div[1] is current()]"/>
===================================
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="text()"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

    When applied on the same XML document (above), the same correct result is produced:

    <div n="a"/>
<spec>red</spec>
<spec>green</spec>
===================================
  <div n="b"/>
<spec>blue</spec>
===================================
  <div n="c"/>
<spec>yellow</spec>
===================================

    And using pure XPath 2.0 (no current()):

    <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="div">

  <div n="{@n}"/>
  <xsl:sequence select="
    for $this in .
     return
        $this//spec[ancestor::div[1] is $this]"/>
===================================
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="text()"/>
</xsl:stylesheet>

    produces the same correct result:

    <div n="a"/>
<spec>red</spec>
<spec>green</spec>
===================================
  <div n="b"/>
<spec>blue</spec>
===================================
  <div n="c"/>
<spec>yellow</spec>
===================================
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