I Have an issue with XPATH and im looking for some help
Here is my code behind on my aspx page
XmlNodeList codelist = bankdoc.SelectNodes("//bank[text() = '" + GetXPathString(strBank) + "'] and ..branch[text()= '" + GetXPathString(strBranch) + "'] ");

GetXPathString is a fxn to concat the 2 string, here it is

           public static string GetXPathString(string input)
           {
               string [] fragments = input.Split(new char[] {'\''});
               string result = "";
               result += "concat(''";
               for (int i = 0; i < fragments.Length; i++)
               {
                   result += ", '" + fragments[i] + "'";
                   if (i < fragments.Length - 1)
                   {
                       result += ", \"'\"";
                   }
               }
               result += ")";
              return result;


           }

However when I run I get the error;
'//bank[text() = 'concat('', 'XXX rrrreee')'] and ..branch[text()= 'concat('', 'xxx wwwwol')'] ' has an invalid token.
Exception Details: System.Xml.XPath.XPathException: '//bank[text() = 'concat('', 'XXX rrrreee')'] and ..branch[text()= 'concat('', 'XXX rrrreee')'] ' has an invalid token.

any ideas?

__________________
Thank You

I have not checked the complete code but you can't have ..branch, that needs to be ../branch

concat is a function, so shouldn't be inside single quotes

Wrong: text()='concat('a','b')'

Correct: text()=concat('a', 'b')

/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/

Hey , ive removed the single quotes from around the concat, thanks, I am still receining this error thou:

'//bank[text() = concat('', 'Clears through Bank name’)] and ..branch[text()= concat('', 'london uk')] ' has an invalid token.

Here is the code now:
XmlNodeList codelist = bankdoc.SelectNodes("//bank[text() = " + GetXPathString(strBank) + "] & ..branch[text()= " + GetXPathString(strBranch) + "] ");
Also have tried
XmlNodeList codelist = bankdoc.SelectNodes("//bank[text() = " + GetXPathString(strBank) + "] and ..branch[text()= " + GetXPathString(strBranch) + "] ");


When Split this code i.ie
XmlNodeList codelist = bankdoc.SelectNodes("//bank[text()= " + GetXPathString(strBank) + "] ");
OR
XmlNodeList codelist = bankdoc.SelectNodes("//branch[text()= " + GetXPathString(strBranch) + "] ");
It works fine, it ojnly gives me the erroer when I want to query 2 nodes, so i must doing something wrong in the ‘AND’ part , any ideas, im lost.
Here is my XML:

basically I am trying to select the <nsc> element, from the values of 2 drop down menus, the first selects <bank> (it’s a distinct list of banks) and the seconds selects <branch> and list of all branchs for the bank selected , I want to print the <nsc> value to a text box.

  <Bank>
    <nsc>000000</nsc>
    <bank>Clears through bank name</bank>
    <branch>london uk</branch>
    <address1>The Square</address1>
    <address2> </address2>
    <address3> </address3>
    <keywords> </keywords>
    <telephone></telephone>
    <fax></fax>
    <atm>Yes</atm>
  </Bank>

Hope this makes sense

Since the bug was in your GetXPathString() method, and you haven't shown the new version of the method, one must assume that you haven't corrected it successfully.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

It would be easier to debug if we could see the actual XPath generated.

--

Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)

hi
sorry, here is my method
          public static string GetXPathString(string input)
           {
               string [] fragments = input.Split(new char[] {'\''});
               string result = "";
               result += "concat(''";
               for (int i = 0; i < fragments.Length; i++)
               {
                   result += ", '" + fragments[i] + "'";
                   if (i < fragments.Length - 1)
                   {
                       result += ", \"'\"";
                   }
               }
               result += ")";
              return result;

           }


here is the XPATH :
'//bank[text() = concat('', 'Clears through Bank name')] and ..branch[text()= concat('', 'Bank aa')] '

I think someone already pointed out that

..branch

is not valid, you presumably intended ../branch

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

i tried that, my code/xpathIs now:
XmlNodeList codelist = bankdoc.SelectNodes("//bank[text() = " + GetXPathString(strBank) + "] and ../branch[text()= " + GetXPathString(strBranch) + "] ");
when i run i get this eror:
Expression must evaluate to a node-set.

Basically you're xpath looks like this:

//bank[text()='A'] and ../branch[text()='B']

The problem is that the 'and' is not inside a predicate (i.e. square brackets []).

What are you trying to return? bank elements, or branch elements?

Can we see a segment of your input XML? Is branch the parent of bank, or vice versa?



/- Sam Judson : Wrox Technical Editor -/