10/1/25, 12:07 Xpath cheatsheet 10/1/25, 12:07 Xpath cheatsheet

DEVHINTS.IO Edit Descendant selectors

h1 //h1 ?

Xpath cheatsheet div p //div//p ?

ul > li //ul/li ?

Your new development career ul > li > a //ul/li/a

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div > * //div/*
ads via Carbon
:root / ?

:root > body /body

Xpath test bed

Test queries in the Xpath test bed: Attribute selectors

#id //*[@id="id"] ?
Xpath test bed
(whitebeam.org)
.class //*[@class="class"] …kinda

input[type="submit"] //input[@type="submit"]

Browser console a#abc[for="xyz"] //a[@id="abc"][@for="xyz"] ?

$x("//div") a[rel] //a[@rel]

a[href^='/'] //a[starts-with(@href, '/')] ?

Works in Firefox and Chrome.
a[href$='pdf'] //a[ends-with(@href, '.pdf')]

a[href*='://'] //a[contains(@href, '://')]

//a[contains(@rel, 'help')] …kinda

Selectors
a[rel~='help']

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Order selectors Other things

ul > li:first-of-type //ul/li[1] ? h1:not([id]) //h1[not(@id)] ?

ul > li:nth-of-type(2) //ul/li[2] Text match //button[text()="Submit"] ?

ul > li:last-of-type //ul/li[last()] Text match (substring) //button[contains(text(),"Go")]

li#id:first-of-type //li[1][@id="id"] ? Arithmetic //product[@price > 2.50]

a:first-child //*[1][name()="a"] Has children //ul[*]

a:last-child //*[last()][name()="a"] Has children (specific) //ul[li]

Or logic //a[@name or @href] ?

Union (joins results) //a | //div ?

Siblings

h1 ~ ul //h1/following-sibling::ul ?

h1 + ul //h1/following-sibling::ul[1] Class check

h1 ~ #id //h1/following-sibling::[@id="id"] //div[contains(concat(' ',normalize-space(@class),' '),' foobar ')]

Xpath doesn’t have the “check if part of space-separated list” operator, so this is the workaround (source).

jQuery

$('ul > li').parent() //ul/li/.. ?

$('li').closest('section') //li/ancestor-or-self::section Expressions

?
$('a').attr('href') //a/@href
Steps and axes
$('span').text() //span/text()
// ul / a[@id='link']

Axis Step Axis Step

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Prefixes Predicates

Prefix Example What //div[true()]

//div[@class="head"]
// //hr[@class='edge'] Anywhere //div[@class="head"][@id="top"]

./ ./a Relative
Restricts a nodeset only if some condition is true. They can be chained.
/ /html/body/div Root

Begin your expression with any of these.

Operators

# Comparison

Axes //a[@id = "xyz"]

//a[@id != "xyz"]
//a[@price > 25]
Axis Example What

/ //ul/li/a Child # Logic (and/or)

//div[@id="head" and position()=2]
// //[@id="list"]//a Descendant //div[(x and y) or not(z)]

Separate your steps with /. Use two (//) if you don’t want to select direct children. Use comparison and logic operators to make conditionals.

Steps Using nodes

//div # Use them inside functions

//div[@name='box'] //ul[count(li) > 2]
//[@id='link'] //ul[count(li[@class='hide']) > 0]

# This returns `<ul>` that has a `<li>` child

A step may have an element name (div) and predicates ([...]). Both are optional. They can also be
//ul[li]
these other things:

//a/text() #=> "Go home" You can use nodes inside predicates.
//a/@href #=> "index.html"
//a/* #=> All a's child elements

Predicates

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Indexing Node functions

//a[1] # first <a> name() # //[starts-with(name(), 'h')]

//a[last()] # last <a> text() # //button[text()="Submit"]
//ol/li[2] # second <li> # //button/text()
//ol/li[position()=2] # same as above lang(str)
//ol/li[position()>1] # :not(:first-of-type) namespace-uri()

Use [] with a number, or last() or position(). count() # //table[count(tr)=1]

position() # //ol/li[position()=2]

Chaining order
Boolean functions

a[1][@href='/']
not(expr) # button[not(starts-with(text(),"Submit"))]
a[@href='/'][1]

Order is significant, these two are different.

String functions

contains() # font[contains(@class,"head")]
Nesting predicates starts-with() # font[starts-with(@class,"head")]
ends-with() # font[ends-with(@class,"head")]
//section[.//h1[@id='hi']]
concat(x,y)
substring(str, start, len)
This returns <section> if it has an <h1> descendant with id='hi'.
substring-before("01/02", "/") #=> 01
substring-after("01/02", "/") #=> 02
translate()
normalize-space()
string-length()

Functions

Type conversion

string()
number()
boolean()

Axes
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Using axes Descendant-or-self axis

//ul/li # ul > li # both the same

//ul/child::li # ul > li (same) //div//h4
//ul/following-sibling::li # ul ~ li //div/descendant-or-self::h4
//ul/descendant-or-self::li # ul li
//ul/ancestor-or-self::li # $('ul').closest('li')
// is short for the descendant-or-self:: axis.

Steps of an expression are separated by /, usually used to pick child nodes. That’s not always true: you
# both the same
can specify a different “axis” with ::.
//ul//[last()]
//ul/descendant-or-self::[last()]
// ul /child:: li

Axis Step Axis Step

Child axis

# both the same

//ul/li/a
//child::ul/child::li/child::a

child:: is the default axis. This makes //a/b/c work.

# both the same

# this works because `child::li` is truthy, so the predicate succeeds
//ul[li]
//ul[child::li]

# both the same

//ul[count(li) > 2]
//ul[count(child::li) > 2]

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Other axes Examples

Axis Abbrev Notes //* # all elements

count(//*) # count all elements
ancestor (//h1)[1]/text() # text of the first h1 heading
//li[span] # find a <li> with an <span> inside it
ancestor-or-self # ...expands to //li[child::span]
//ul/li/.. # use .. to select a parent
attribute @ @href is short for attribute::href

child div is short for child::div

descendant Find a parent

descendant-or-self // // is short for /descendant-or-self::node()/ //section[h1[@id='section-name']]

namespace
Finds a <section> that directly contains h1#section-name
self . . is short for self::node()
//section[//h1[@id='section-name']]
parent .. .. is short for parent::node()

following Finds a <section> that contains h1#section-name. (Same as above, but uses descendant-or-self instead
of child)
following-sibling

preceding

preceding-sibling Closest

./ancestor-or-self::[@class="box"]
There are other axes you can use.

Works like jQuery’s $().closest('.box').

Unions

//a | //span Attributes

Use | to join two expressions. //item[@price > 2*@discount]

Finds <item> and check its attributes

More examples
References
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