Question

From some xml I want to find items that have a specific attribute and value.

Here is example xml:

<node>
 <node>
  <node>
   <special NAME="thisone"></special>
  </node>
  <node>
   <special>dont want this one</special>
  </node>
 </node>
</node>

(nodes can contain nodes…)

I need to find the first based on it has an attribute named “NAME” and value of “thisone”.

then I need its parent (node).

I tried this:

specialItems = tempXML.*.(hasOwnProperty(“NAME”));

but didnt seem to do anything.

??

Thanks!

Answer 1

In ActionScript you’ll use E4X rather than XPath, generally. What you want can be achieved like this:

var xml:XML = <node>...</node>;
var selected:XMLList = xml.descendants().(attribute("NAME") == "thisone");      
var first:XML = selected[0];
var parent:XML = first.parent();

If you know the node you want is a special, then you can use:

var selected:XMLList = xml..special.(attribute("NAME") == "thisone");

instead. Here’s a nice E4X tutorial.

If you use the @NAME == "thisone" syntax, then you do need the NAME attribute on all of your XML nodes, but not if you use the attribute() operator syntax instead.

---

I added the parent() call above; you could get the parent directly by using the child only in the conditional:

xml..node.(child("special").attribute("NAME") == "thisone");