XPaths sometimes become inaccessible in the usual way, which requires us to cleverly combine nodes.
XPath Axes is a collection of syntaxes that support queries to relationships in Nodes. And the ultimate goal is to find the element we are looking for.
So what syntax does XPath Axes have, what is its effect. In the following article, I will share to let people understand more about XPath Axes.
1. Following
Xpath=//div[@class='mobile']//following::span allows retrieving all span tags in the source code behind a div tag with class ‘mobile’.
2. Preceding
Xpath=//div[@class='mobile']//preceding::span allows retrieving all span tags in the source code before a div tag with class ‘mobile’.
3. Descendant
Xpath=//div[@class='mobile']//descendant::span allows retrieving all span tags in source code that are descendants of a div tag with class ‘mobile’.
** The usage of Following-sibling, Preceding-sibling is similar to Descendant, when using one of these, the xpath results will return the same.
4. Ancestor
Xpath=//div[@class='mobile']//ancestor::div allows retrieving all div tags in source code as parent, ancestor of a div tag with class ‘mobile’.
5. Parent
Xpath=//div[@class='mobile']//parent::span allows retrieving all span tags that are parent tags in div tags with class ‘mobile’.
6. Child
Xpath=//div[@class='mobile']//child::span allows retrieving all span tags that are child tags in div tags with class ‘mobile’.
Refer to the full table of XPath Axes:
| AxisName | Define |
|---|---|
| ancestor | Select all ancestors (parents, grandparents, etc.) of the specified element |
| ancestor-or-self | Select all ancestors (parents, grandparents, etc.) of the specified element and itself |
| attribute | Select all the properties of the specified element |
| child | Select the child of the specified element |
| descendant | Select all descendants and descendants of the specified element |
| descendant-or-self | Select all descendants, descendants of the specified element and itself |
| following | Select all elements after the specified element |
| following-sibling | Select all siblings after the specified element |
| namespace | Select all namespaces of the specified element |
| parent | Select all parent elements of the specified element |
| preceding | Select all elements that precede the specified element |
| preceding-sibling | Select all siblings before the specified element |
| self | Select the specified element |