XPath Tester
Validate XML grammar and evaluate XPath expressions against dynamic schemas with custom result highlights.
0 nodes matched
Valid Grammar
Query Presets
Query Results (0 matched)
No matching elements or attributes were found for the query.
Deep-dive: How XPath is evaluated
XPath (XML Path Language) is a declarative syntax for navigating XML trees. An XPath expression traverses the DOM to address parts of the markup, including elements, attributes, text nodes, and comments.
XML Grammar: Unlike HTML, XML is extremely rigid. Every element must have a corresponding closing tag, tags are case-sensitive, attribute values must be enclosed in quotes, and entities like < and & must be escaped. This tester validates grammar using the browser's native parser and raises error descriptions instantly.
Syntax Reference:
/bookstore/book: Selects children elements relative to root.//price: Selects elements globally anywhere in the tree.//@category: Selects attribute nodes.//book[price > 10]: Uses predicates to filter elements by child node value constraints.
Built and maintained by Meet Shah · Last updated
What this tool is used for
- Checking an expression against real markup before putting it in a scraper or a transform.
- Working out why a selector matches nothing when the element is clearly present.
- Testing whether a predicate narrows a node set the way you intended.
- Comparing an absolute path against a more robust relative one.
- Confirming what a string or numeric expression evaluates to rather than a node set.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does an XPath expression select?
- A node set from a document tree, addressed by path. `//book[@id='1']/title` finds any book element with that id anywhere in the document and returns its title child — the double slash being the descendant axis rather than a root path.
- Why does my expression return nothing on an XML document?
- Almost always namespaces. An element in a default namespace cannot be matched by its bare name — `//book` finds nothing if the document declares `xmlns`. You need a prefix bound in the evaluator, or `local-name()` as a workaround.
- How do predicates and indexes work?
- Predicates in square brackets filter, and a bare number is positional — `//item[1]` is the first matching item, one-indexed rather than zero. That off-by-one against every programming language is the most common XPath mistake.
- What are the axes for?
- Navigating in directions a path cannot express: `parent::`, `following-sibling::`, `ancestor::`, `preceding::`. They are what makes XPath more powerful than a CSS selector, which can only descend.
- XPath or CSS selectors?
- CSS for HTML in a browser — shorter and faster. XPath when you need to match on text content, walk upward to a parent, or address by position in a way CSS cannot express, which is why scraping and testing tools support both.
Common errors and gotchas
- Ignoring namespaces. A default namespace in the document makes an unprefixed expression match nothing at all.
- Assuming positions are zero-based. XPath indexes from one, which is the most common off-by-one here.
- Writing an absolute path against markup that a parser has normalised, for example by inserting a tbody.
- Confusing `//a[1]` with `(//a)[1]`, which select very different things.
- Expecting a text node and getting an element, then reading the empty result as no match.
Related Developer Utilities tools
RegExp Tester
Test regular expressions and inspect matches locally.
Regex Visualizer
Visual regex pattern diagram with live match highlighting and capture group annotations.
Subnet Calculator
Compute CIDR subnets, usable hosts, and network ranges.
Cron Parser
Translate cron syntax into plain English.
URL Parser
Break a URL into protocol, host, path, and query parts.
HTML Previewer
Paste HTML and see it rendered live in a safe, sandboxed preview.
HTTP Status Code Reference
Search and look up every HTTP status code and its meaning.
MIME Type Lookup
Find the MIME type for a file extension, or the extensions for a MIME type.