XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Chapter 11. XPointers

XPointers are a non-XML syntax for identifying locations inside XML documents. An XPointer is attached to the end of the URI as its fragment identifier to indicate a particular part of an XML document rather than the entire document. XPointer syntax builds on the XPath syntax used by XSLT and covered in Chapter 9. To the four fundamental XPath data types—Boolean, node-set, number, and string—XPointer adds points and ranges, as well as the functions needed to work with these types. It also adds some shorthand syntax for particularly useful and common forms of XPath expressions.