Special Edition Using XSLT

Location Paths

Location paths, as the name suggests, specify a pathway, or series of steps, that can be followed to reach a point in the document tree. The location path is usually stated in terms of an agreed upon starting point, called a context.

In the examples that follow, diagrams illustrate the part of the tree being selected by each location path. A large arrow marks the initial context node, and dashed arrows show the path from that point to the selected node, which will be in a highlighted box.

Location Path Syntax

XPath’s location path syntax is in many ways similar to the syntax of filesystem paths:

/usr/pkg/bin/bash 

or:

\windows\win.com 

These just consist of a list of names separate by slashes (the kind of slash used depends ...