XPath

XPath

In InterFormNG2, you use the language XPath for referencing data from the XML file. There are many sources of information if you want to learn more about XPath, but you can also simply read the few examples below to get a good idea of how it can be used with InterFormNG2. Help for entering XPath functions can be found in the XPath wizard.

Below, you can find links to various XPath functions and features.

Apart from the general XPath functions linked below, there is also a long list of special InterFormNG2 built in XPath functions.

  • Advanced XPath Features

    • Working with regular expressions in XPath
    • Using variables in XPath

  • Date & Time Operations

    • Printing the current date/time (current-date())
    • Add or subtract a number of days, months, or years to/from a date
    • Formatting a date/time
    • Conditioning an element based on the current date

  • Iteration & Grouping

    • Avoiding warnings in job logs when repeats select no nodes
    • Iterate across multiple detail lines (repeat)
    • Creating a repeat loop for a subset of nodes (based on a unique attribute, node name, or subtree value)
    • Grouping nodes (e.g., summarizing values from grouped nodes)
    • Listing values of all nodes with a generic node name (starting with xxx)
    • Identifying the current line number within a repeat (e.g., in a transformation)

  • Node Existence & Conditions

    • Calculating the sum of nodes
    • Counting specific nodes
    • Verifying if a node exists
    • Checking if a node is not blank
    • Checking if a node is blank
    • Using attributes of a node
    • Ignoring namespaces in XPath expressions

  • Numeric Operations & Comparisons

    • Solving the error: Unsuitable types for + operation (xs:string, xs:integer) in the workflow
    • Performing basic numeric operations (+ - * /)
    • Rounding numbers (round(), floor(), ceiling())
    • Formatting numbers
    • Introduction to the boolean() function
    • A good way to compare data is with the ng:compare function

  • String Manipulation

    • Adding preceding/leading or trailing zeroes/blanks to a string
    • Concatenating multiple strings (concat)
    • Extracting part of a string using start position and length (substring)
    • Extracting text before or after a certain value (substring-before, substring-after)
    • Checking if a string contains another string (contains)
    • Replacing occurrences of string1 with string2 (replace)
    • Removing or replacing specific characters in a string (translate)
    • Tokenize: Convert a string into a list and use an index for references to this list

  • XML Node Selection & Referencing

    • Connecting preceding or following node sets to the main node set
    • Selecting a range of nodes using index/position()
    • Referencing a simple node in an input XML file (XML reference)
    • XML reference via node number
    • XML reference via a condition on a value
    • Referencing a node via index number


 






    • Related Articles

    • Advanced XPath Features

      For more complex scenarios, XPath provides regular expressions, variable assignments, and special functions to manipulate and evaluate XML data dynamically. This section covers these advanced features. Working with regular expressions in XPath Using ...

    • Node Existence & Conditions

      XPath allows you to verify the existence of nodes, check if they contain data, count occurrences, and ignore namespaces. This section covers essential techniques for validating and filtering XML elements. Calculating the sum of nodes Counting ...

    • XPath wizard

      When you in InterFormNG2 insert a value in a field, then you for most have these options: 1.You can insert a fixed text. 2.You can type a dynamic XPath expression where you need to remember each XPath function and the matching parameters. 3.For some ...

    • Using variables in Xpath expressions

      XPath is a strong tool in itself, but you can even use variables in your XPath expressions. The way it works is by referring to a variable as: $variable You use the variable element to assign a value to a variable. Variables are case-sensitive, so ...

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