How do I retrieve multiple row node data from an html table in XPATH?

Question

Sometime during the dark ages a script was built that outputs the following html..

...

...
Sorry, I would show you the table layout but I don't know how without 


Access Information



Access Circuit(s):


**DATA TO COLLECT 111**


Other Circuit(s):


 




 


**DATA TO COLLECT AAA**


 


 




 


**DATA TO COLLECT BBB**


 


 




 


**DATA TO COLLECT CCC**


 


 




Customer:


 on SO
How can I use XPATH (in PHP) to collect only each DATA TO COLLECT section? So far I've been able to retrieve the first row with //*[*='Access Circuit(s):']/following-sibling::td[1].
Things to note:

This is only a small section of a large document.
I cannot change the scripts output.
I wont know how many rows there will be (figure 0 to 6).
The data should be expected to always be in the same "column".
I may only have XPATH version 1. But version 2 answers are still welcomed.

Petr Janeček · Accepted Answer

The expression I came up with is this:

//TR[(.//B[.='Access Circuit(s):']) or ((./preceding-sibling::TR//B[.='Access Circuit(s):']) and (./following-sibling::TR//B[.='Customer:']))]//TD[2]

returns

**DATA TO COLLECT 111**
**DATA TO COLLECT AAA**
**DATA TO COLLECT BBB**
**DATA TO COLLECT CCC**

It uses the knowledge that the first row contains Access Circuit(s): and the first uncollected row contains Customer:. If you can't be sure of either one of those, then I think it can't be done with a single XPath expression.

Step-by-step
1. //TR[
2.     (.//B[.="Access Circuit(s):"])
3.     or (     (./preceding-sibling::TR//B[.="Access Circuit(s):"])
4.          and (./following-sibling::TR//B[.="Customer:"]) )
5.     ]//TD[2]

Means
1. all TR nodes
2. that either contain "Access Circuit(s):"
3. or
    - (3.) are positioned after "Access Circuit(s):"
    - (4.) and are positioned before "Customer:"
5. all TD nodes that are the second TD of their parents

How do I retrieve multiple row node data from an html table in XPATH?

Answers (1)

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