XPATH select where an attribute doesn't exist

Question

Hi All,
How can I select out an element where an attribute does not exist?
eg:
<Item Block="MYBLOCK">
<Properties>
<Property Name="ScrollbarXPosition">5542</Property>
<Property Name="ScrollbarYPosition">903</Property>
<Property Name="RecordVisualAttributeGroupName">EMPHASIZE</Property>
</Properties>
</Item>
<Item Block="MYBLOCK" Name="ITEM1">
<Properties>
<Property Name="RecordVisualAttributeGroupName">CG$TEXT_ITEM</Property>
<Property Name="VisualAttributeName">CG$TEXT_ITEM</Property>
<Property Name="PromptVisualAttributeName">PROMPT_NORMAL</Property>
</Properties>
</Item> What I would like to do is select the Elment RecordVisualAttributeGroupName from the first elements where the Item Block="MYBLOCK" and Name is NULL. I've had a look through XPATH and can't find the function.
Something along the lines :
Item[@Block='MYBLOCK' and Name IS NULL]/Properties/Property [@Name='RecordVisualAttributeGroupName']/text()"regards,
Steve

Answer 1

Hello Steve,
How about:
Item[@Block='MYBLOCK' and (not(@Name) or @Name='')]/Properties/Property[@Name='RecordVisualAttributeGroupName']/text()You can try it out against the following document:
<root>
     <Item Block="MYBLOCK">
          <Properties>
               <Property Name="ScrollbarXPosition">5542</Property>
               <Property Name="ScrollbarYPosition">903</Property>
               <Property Name="RecordVisualAttributeGroupName">EMPHASIZE</Property>
          </Properties>
     </Item>
     <Item Block="MYBLOCK" Name="ITEM1">
          <Properties>
               <Property Name="RecordVisualAttributeGroupName">CG$TEXT_ITEM</Property>
               <Property Name="VisualAttributeName">CG$TEXT_ITEM</Property>
               <Property Name="PromptVisualAttributeName">PROMPT_NORMAL</Property>
          </Properties>
     </Item>
     <Item Block="MYBLOCK" Name="">
          <Properties>
               <Property Name="RecordVisualAttributeGroupName">CG$TEXT_ITEM</Property>
               <Property Name="VisualAttributeName">CG$TEXT_ITEM</Property>
               <Property Name="PromptVisualAttributeName">PROMPT_NORMAL</Property>
          </Properties>
     </Item>
</root>Using the following code:
import java.io.FileReader;
import oracle.xml.parser.v2.DOMParser;
import oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLDocument;
import oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLElement;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
public class Demo {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        FileReader fileReader = new FileReader("sample.xml");
        DOMParser parser = new DOMParser();
        parser.parse(fileReader);
        XMLDocument document = parser.getDocument();
        XMLElement rootElement = (XMLElement) document.getDocumentElement();
        NodeList result = rootElement.selectNodes("Item[@Block='MYBLOCK' and (not(@Name) or @Name='')]/Properties/Property[@Name='RecordVisualAttributeGroupName']/text()");
}-Blaise