Problem with getNodeValue() - simple Java XPath question

Question

I am trying to extract the node values from a XML file:
<root>
  <frame>
     <boxes>
       <box>
          <spec>22</spec>
          <spec>2222</spec>
       </box>
       <box>
          <spec id="BA" value="short"/>
          <spec id="BB" value="thin"/>
          <spec id="BC" value="black"/>
          <spec id="BD" value="full"/>
          <spec id="BE" value="7"/>
          <spec id="BF" value="deactive"/>
       </box>                
     </boxes>
     <circles>
       <circle id="CA" value="blue"/>
       <circle id="CB" value="green"/>
     </circles>
  </frame>
</root>I use this code:
         XPathFactory factory = XPathFactory.newInstance();
         XPath xpath = factory.newXPath();
         XPathExpression xPathExpression = xpath.compile("/root/frame/boxes/box/spec");            
         Object result = xPathExpression.evaluate(doc, XPathConstants.NODESET);
         NodeList nodes = (NodeList) result;
         for (int i = 0; i < nodes.getLength(); i++) {
             System.out.println(nodes.item(i).getNodeValue());
         }But only:
null
null
null
null
null
null
null
null
get printed. I would have assumed:
22
2222
null
null
null
null
null
null
since the two first spec nodes contains the above numbers. Any ideas?

Answer 1

change this:
XPathExpression xPathExpression = xpath.compile("/root/frame/boxes/box/spec");to this:
XPathExpression xPathExpression = xpath.compile("/root/frame/boxes/box/spec/text()");Need to xpath all the way down to the text of the node.
You could use
System.out.println(nodes.item(i).getTextContent());with your current xpath but if the spec node has children, these will also be included in the output.