Select all text not in div elements using xpath?

Question

how can i select only text which is not in div tags?

eg.

<div>
    <div>not this</div>
    1<br/>
    <div>not this</div>
    1<br/>
    1<br/>
    <div>not this</div>
</div>
<div>
    <div>not this</div>
    2
    <div>not this</div>
    2   
    2   
    <div>not this</div>
</div>
<div>
    <div>not this</div>
    3
    <div>not this</div>
    3   
    3   
    <div>not this</div>
</div>

results: {'1/n1/n1/n','2 2 2','3 3 3'}

Do you mean not in a second level `div`? Everything you have posted is in a `div` — Abe Miessler, Mar 11 '11 at 17:12
Good question, +1. See my answer for a complete, short and simple one-liner XPath expression that selects exactly the wanted nodes. :) — Dimitre Novatchev, Mar 12 '11 at 19:33

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 11 '11 at 17:29

0

//text()[normalize-space()][../node()[not(self::text())]]

Meaning: any not whitespace only text node having at least one sibling node

answered Mar 11 '11 at 17:29

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 12 '11 at 19:31

Use:

div/text()[string-length(normalize-space()) > 0]

This expression, when evaluated with the parent of the provided XML fragment as the context node, selects all non-white-space-only text-node children of any div child of the context node.

Here is complete verification:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output method="text"/>

 <xsl:template match="/*">
  <xsl:for-each select=
   "div/text()[string-length(normalize-space()) > 0]">
    "<xsl:value-of select="."/>"
    <xsl:text>&#xA;</xsl:text>
   </xsl:for-each>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

when this transformation is applied on the provided XML fragment (wrapped in a top element to become well-formed XML document):

<t>
    <div>
        <div>not this</div>
        1<br/>
        <div>not this</div>
        1<br/>
        1<br/>
        <div>not this</div></div>
    <div>
        <div>not this</div>
        2       
        <div>not this</div>
        2
        2          
        <div>not this</div></div>
    <div>
        <div>not this</div>
        3       
        <div>not this</div>
        3
        3          
        <div>not this</div></div>
</t>

the wanted, correct result is produced:

Select all text not in div elements using xpath?

2 Answers2