I have a piece of XML like so:
<root>
<foo src=""/>
<foo src="bar"/>
<foo />
</root>
I want to know which elements have a src attribute, which are empty and which have values.
The furthest I have come is with
$ xmlstarlet sel -t -m '//foo' -v @src -n foo.xml
bar
Though that doesn't tell me the third foo is missing the attribute.
This will select the foos with no src
attribute.
/root/foo[not(@src)]
For the other two tasks, I would use a mix of the expressions pointed out by @TOUDIdel and @Dimitre Novatchev:
/root/foo[@src and string-length(@src)=0]
for foos with an empty src
, and /root/foo[@src and string-length(@src)!=0]
for foos with an src
with content in it.
As an aside, I would avoid using the "anywhere" selector, //
(not to mention the *
wildcard), unless you're sure that this is specifically what you need. //
is like making your very eager dog sniff a piece of cloth and telling it, "bring me everything that smells like this, wherever you find it". You won't believe the weird crap it can decide to bring back.
I want to know which elements have a src attribute, which are empty and which have values.
Elements having a @src
attribute which is empty (no string-value):
//*[@src[not(string())]]
Elements having a @src
attribute which has value (string-value):
//*[string(@src)]
From http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/#section-String-Functions
A node-set is converted to a string by returning the string-value of the node in the node-set that is first in document order. If the node-set is empty, an empty string is returned.
From http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath/#function-boolean
A string is true if and only if its length is non-zero.
/root/foo[string-length(@src)!=0]
return all foo elements have non empty value.
Unfortunately /root/foo[string-length(@src)=0]
indicates elements which don't have src attribute and also elements have src attribute but empty.
Use:
//*[@src and not(string-length(@src))]
This selects all elements in the XML document that have a src
attribute whose string-value has length of zero.
//*[@src and string-length(@src)]
This selects all elements in the XML document that have a src
attribute whose string-value has length that is not zero.
//*[@src and string-length(normalize-space(@src))]
This selects all elements in the XML document that have a src
attribute whose string-value after excluding the starting and ending whitespace has length that is not zero.
//[not(@src)]
This selects all elements in the XML document that don't have a src
attribute.