Class XPathExpression

java.lang.Object

eu.maveniverse.domtrip.XPathExpression

public class XPathExpression
extends Object

Mini-XPath expression support for string-based element queries.

Compiles a subset of XPath expressions into efficient element queries that can be evaluated against any element in a DomTrip document tree. This provides a convenient string-based alternative to the programmatic ElementQuery API.

Supported Expressions:

Path navigation

foo/bar/baz	Direct child path
//foo	Descendant-or-self (search anywhere below)
foo//bar	bar anywhere under foo children
.	Current element
..	Parent element
*	Any element (wildcard)

Predicates

foo[@attr]	Element with attribute present
foo[@attr='value']	Element with attribute equal to value
foo[bar='text']	Element with child text content
foo[1]	First element (1-based)
foo[last()]	Last element

Usage Examples:

// Compile once, reuse many times
XPathExpression expr = XPathExpression.compile("//dependency[@scope='test']");
List<Element> results = expr.select(root);
Optional<Element> first = expr.selectFirst(root);

// Or use convenience methods on Element
List<Element> deps = element.select("dependencies/dependency");
Optional<Element> match = element.selectFirst("dependency[groupId='junit']");

// Or on Editor
List<Element> allDeps = editor.select("//dependency");

What is NOT Supported:

• Full axis specifiers (preceding-sibling::, ancestor::)
• XPath functions (contains(), normalize-space())
• Boolean operators (and, or)
• Arithmetic operators
• Union operator (|)

Since:

1.3.0

See Also:

• Element.select(String)
• Element.selectFirst(String)
• Editor.select(String)
• Editor.selectFirst(String)
• ElementQuery

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
static XPathExpression	compile(String expression)	Compiles an XPath expression string into a reusable XPathExpression.
String	expression()	Returns the original expression string.
List<Element>	select(Element context)	Evaluates this expression against the given context element and returns all matching elements.
Optional<Element>	selectFirst(Element context)	Evaluates this expression against the given context element and returns the first match.
String	toString()

Methods inherited from class Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Method Details

compile

public static XPathExpression compile(String expression)

Compiles an XPath expression string into a reusable XPathExpression.

The compiled expression can be evaluated multiple times against different context elements without re-parsing.

Parameters:

expression - the XPath expression to compile

Returns:

a compiled XPathExpression

Throws:

DomTripException - if the expression is null, empty, or syntactically invalid

select

public List<Element> select(Element context)

Evaluates this expression against the given context element and returns all matching elements.

Parameters:

context - the element to evaluate the expression against

Returns:

a list of matching elements, never null

selectFirst

public Optional<Element> selectFirst(Element context)

Evaluates this expression against the given context element and returns the first match.

Parameters:

context - the element to evaluate the expression against

Returns:

an Optional containing the first matching element, or empty if none found

expression

public String expression()

Returns the original expression string.

Returns:

the expression string

toString

public String toString()

Overrides:

toString in class Object