XPath 2.0 Programmers Reference

What is this book about?

XPath 2.0 Programmer''s Reference is the only authoritative reference on XPath, a sub-language within XSLT that determines which part of an XML document the XSLT transforms. Written for professional programmers who use XML every day but find the W3C XPath specifications tough to slog through, this book explains in everyday language what every construct in the language does and how to use it. It also offers background material on the design thinking behind the language, gentle criticism of the language specification when appropriate, and a diverse range of interesting examples in various application areas.

From its origins as a sublanguage of XSLT, XPath has come into its own as a key element of XML. XPath 2.0 has emerged as a robust language twice the size of its predecessor, complex and capable of standing on its own.

This substantive volume, by the editor of the W3C® XSLT 2.0 specification, is the authoritative reference on XPath 2.0. It begins by thoroughly explaining the foundations, including XML schema and the evaluation context. Building on this knowledge, it then moves through literals and function calls, basic operators, path expressions, types, and the regular expressions of three new functions that greatly boost the power of XPath 2.0.

What you will learn from this book

• Top-level constructs and the lexical rules for using whitespace and comments
• Basic operators for writing arithmetic and Boolean expressions
• Three operators for combining the results of path expressions: union, intersect, and except
• How XPath 2.0 supports sequences
• Where to access a complete listing of all functions in the core function library
• How to define the syntax of XPath regular expressions as used in the new functions matches(), replace(), and tokenize(), and much more

Who this book is for

This book is for experienced programmers who use XPath 2.0 and want a comprehensive understanding of it at every level. A basic knowledge of XML and Web architecture is essential.

Wrox Programmer’s References are designed to give the experienced developer straight facts on a new technology, without hype or unnecessary explanations. They deliver hard information with plenty of practical examples to help you apply new tools to your development projects today.

Michael Kay has been working in the XML field since 1997; he became a member of the XSLWorking Group soon after the publication of XSLT 1.0, and took over as editor of the XSLT 2.0 specification in early 2001. He is also a member of the XQueryWorking Group, and is a joint editor of the XPath 2.0 specification. He is well known not only through previous editions of this book, but also as the developer of the open-source Saxon product, a pioneering implementation of XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, and XQuery 1.0.
The author has recently formed his own company, Saxonica, to provide commercial software and services building on the success of the Saxon technology. Previously, he spent three years with Software AG, working with the developers of the Tamino XML server, a leading XQuery implementation. His background is in database technology: after leaving the University of Cambridge with a Ph.D., he worked for many years with the (then) computer manufacturer ICL, developing network, relational, and object-oriented database software products as well as a text search engine, and held the position of ICL Fellow.