Create and possibly filter a sequence of nodes.
The following construct(s) refer to this construct:
An AxisStep
is a step expression that creates a sequence of
nodes. Beginning at the context node, it takes a step in forward or reverse
direction of the given axis.
The unabbreviated form requires a node test that checks whether the node
is of a certain kind or whether it passes a name test. You can specify a
predicate expression by using StepQualifiers
to filter the current
sequence of nodes.
The abbreviated form allows you to use shorthand notations for the axes
self
, parent
and attribute
.
Select all books written by Stevens:
input()/descendant-or-self::book[child::author/child::last = "Stevens"]
Starting from the document node, this query uses the unabbreviated form
to take a step on the descendant-or-self
axis and adds any
book
(NodeTest
) to the sequence. Those
elements are retained that satisfy the following predicate expression
(StepQualifiers
): there is a child element node
author
that has a child element node
last
whose string value is
"Stevens".