XPath selecting multiple elements with predicates

Question

I have an XPath query which is doing what I want, namely selecting a union of \'surname\' & \'given-names\' with the given predicates (It\'s actually either/or that I ne

Answer 1

In addition to Alejandro's and Seva's good answers, another alternative is

(/header/authors/surname | /header/authors/given-names)[text() and @id='1']

This is valid in XPath 1.0. It still is a bit redundant, but is more succinct than the long-winded version in your question.

A further alternative would be to declare a variable for surname elements and a variable for given-name elements, and then

($surnames | $given-names)[text() and @id='1']

That would probably be longer in total, but easier to read than the above.

Answer 2

How about

/header/authors/*[(name() = "surname" or name()="given-names") and ./text() and @id='1'] 

Answer 3

First, this is valid XPath 2.0:

/header/authors/(surname|given-names)[./text() and @id='1'] 

Second, this XPath 1.0:

/header/authors/*[self::surname|self::given-names][text()][@id='1']