Question

I have this structure:

<root>
  <properties>
    <property name="test">
      <value>X</value>
    </property>
  </properties>
  <things>
    <thing>
      <properties>
        <property name="test">
          <value>Y</value>
        </property>
      </properties>
    </thing>
  </things>
</root>

Is there an XPath expression which will select only the test property with value X if run with <root> as root, and only the one with value Y if run with thing as root?

I thought that /properties/property[@name='test'] would require it to be a direct child, but that seems to return nothing. If I remove the slash, I get both property elements (I’m using C#, with XElement root = ...; root.XPathSelectElements(xpathexpression);).

Answer 1

I think you mean Property and not Properties. Try ./properties/property[@name='test']