XPath to find nearest ancestor element that contains an element that has an attribute with a certain value

Question

ancestor::foo[bar[@attr=\"val\"]]

I thought this would work, but it\'s not. I need to find the nearest foo element going up in the tree tha

Answer 1

Updated to reflect a solution intended by OP.

See @David's answer

For a sample xml below,

    
    
        
    
    
        
            1
            
                3
            
        
    

a valid xpath on the reverse axis with as the context node, a valid solution is

./ancestor::foo[bar[@attr='val']][position() = 1]

"./" is optional. position() = 1 is not optional as otherwise the ancestor foo satisfying the predicates would also be returned.

Old answer:ignore

This is an old question. but anybody who is interested, the following should get you what the original question intended.

Reverse axis

//bar[@attr='val']/ancestor::*[position()=1]

Forward axis

//*[child::bar[@attr='val']]