XPath (XML Path Language)

XPath (XML Path Language) is a query language used for navigating and selecting nodes within XML documents. It allows users to locate elements, attributes, or text based on their structure and relationships within the document hierarchy. XPath is widely used in web scraping, automated testing, and configuration files, especially when working with structured markup like XML or HTML.

Also known as: XML path, XML query language

Comparisons

• XPath vs. CSS Selectors: Both are used to locate elements, but XPath provides more powerful navigation (like traversing up the DOM) and conditional logic, while CSS selectors are simpler and more readable for basic queries.
• XPath vs. JSONPath: XPath works with XML/HTML, whereas JSONPath is used for querying JSON structures.

Pros

• Powerful querying capabilities for complex document structures

• Supports conditions, axes (e.g., parent, sibling), and functions

• Useful in automated tools like Selenium and XML parsers

Cons

• Syntax can be verbose and difficult to learn

• May be less performant than CSS selectors for simple queries

• Not natively supported in all web environments

Example

To select all <div> elements with the class article:

This expression finds every div element in the document with a class attribute equal to "article", making it useful for extracting specific sections in web scraping or automated testing.