XPath is a syntax that defines parts of an hierarchical document. Use XPath to select sequences of nodes or values in an hierarchical document. XPath includes a library of standard functions that you can use to select data.

You can define XPath 2.0 expressions in the Data Processor transformation. When you configure Output XPath expressions, you can use a subset of the XPath 2.0 syntax when you define mapping statements for Add mode or Match or Add mode.

For more information about XPath, refer to your XPath documentation.

The following table describes some XPath expressions:

XPath Expression	Description
nodename	Selects all child nodes of the given name in the context.
. (dot)	Selects current node.
..	Selects parent of current node.
@	Selects attribute.
/	Selects from root node or child of current node if preceded by node. When the path starts with a slash ( / ) it represents an absolute path to an element.
//	Selects nodes anywhere in the document or descendants of current node if preceded by node.

The following table lists some XPath expressions and the result of each expression:

XPath Expression	Result
/bookstore	Selects the root bookstore node.
bookstore/book	Selects book nodes that are children of all bookstore nodes.
//book	Selects the book nodes in the document in all locations.
bookstore//book	Selects all book nodes that are descendants of the bookstore nodes.
/bookstore/*	Selects all child nodes of bookstore root element.
//*	Returns a sequence of all elements in the document.