Select node without namespace with XPath

Question

I have a xml like

    Text
    Number


        

Answer 1

Use the local-name() function like so:

//*[local-name()='child2']

Answer 2

You can bind any prefix you like (say banana) to the namespace "http://foo", and the expression /root/banana:child2 will find the child2 element, regardless what namespace prefix has been used in the source document. Only the namespace URI has to match.