select Attribute by value

Question

Given this simple xml:

<root>  
    <child id="foo" />  
    <child id="bar" />  
</root>

I want to select the attribute with value = foo. This xpath works: root/child[@id='foo']/@id but it seems there should be a way to accomplish the same without redundantly specifying the attribute name. Is it possible?

I've seen many discussions on finding an element using an attribute value; but in this case I want to return the attribute itself.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '13 at 16:22

1

How about

root/child/@id[. = 'foo']

A dot means the current node, it doesn't necessarily have to be an element.

answered Dec 19 '13 at 16:22

Ian Roberts

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That's exactly what I was looking for. I thought it would be something simple. Once I knew what to search, I quickly found: [xpath-punctuation](http://developer.marklogic.com/blog/xpath-punctuation-part-1). Thanks. – jaco0646 Dec 19 '13 at 16:37

select Attribute by value

1 Answers1