| XPath | Description |
| para | selects the 'para' element children of the context node |
| * | selects all element children of the context node |
| text() | selects all text node children of the context node |
| node() | selects all the children of the context node, whatever their node type |
| */para | selects all para grandchildren of the context node |
| @name | selects the 'name' attribute of the context node |
| @* | selects all the attributes of the context node |
| form: .//para | selects the 'para' element descendants of the context node |
| self::para | selects the context node if it is a 'para' element;
otherwise selects nothing |
| self::elem | selects the context node if it is an 'elem' element;
otherwise selects nothing |
| // | selects the context node, all the children (including attribute nodes)
of the context node, and all the children of all the (element) descendants of t
he context node. This is almost a powerset of the context node. |
| div//para | selects the 'para' element descendants of the 'div' element
children of the context node |
| //olist/item | selects all the 'item' elements that have an 'olist' parent (which is not root)
and that are in the same document as the context node |
| //td/@align | selects 'align' attributes of all 'td' elements |
| //td[@align] | selects all 'td' elements that have an attribute 'align' |
| //td[@align="right"] | selects all 'td' elements that have an attribute align="right" |
| para[1] | selects the first 'para' child of the context node |
| para[last()] | selects the last para child of the context node |
| table/tr[2]/td[3] | selects the third td of the second tr of the table |
| para[@type='warning'][5] | selects the fifth 'para' child of the context node that has a type
attribute with value warning |
| para[5][@type='warning'] | selects the fifth 'para' child of the context node if that child has a
'type' attribute with value 'warning' |
| chapter[title='Introduction'] | selects the 'chapter' children of the context node that have one or
more 'title' children with string-value equal to 'Introduction' |
| chapter[title] | selects the 'chapter' children of the context node that have one or
more 'title' children |