CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregexxmlxpath
Saikat
Saikat

Reputation: 16810

Regex to modify xpath expression

I have to verify Xpath expressions using Java code for which I am using the DOMParser. The problem that I am facing is that for default namespaces I need to tweak the xpath before it can be evaluated by the code. For e.g. if I want to use the following xpath -

//party[@id='party1:abc']/abc:person[@id='Trader']/trade/abc:personId[@personIdScheme='urn:xyz:person-id:PEOPLESOFT']/text()

I need to pass this to code as -

//:party[@id='party1:abc']/abc:person[@id='Trader']/:trade/abc:personId[@personIdScheme='urn:xyz:person-id:PEOPLESOFT']/text()

So basically the requirement is to put a : before all relevant nodes where default namespace is applicable.

Can someone please help with a regex which can do this conversion efficiently?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 300

Answers (4)

Michael Kay
Michael Kay

Reputation: 163342

If you need this to work on any possible XPath expression then a solution using regex is not possible, because regexes are not powerful enough to parse a recursive grammar like XPath. You will need a full XPath parser. There are several around, e.g. REx.

Upvotes: 0

LukStorms
LukStorms

Reputation: 29667

String str = "//party[@id='party1:abc']/abc:person[@id='Trader']/trade/abc:personId[@personIdScheme='urn:xyz:person-id:PEOPLESOFT']/text()";
str = str.replaceAll("/(?=\\w.*?/)(?![^\\[/]*:)","/:");

The regex looks for the / that are not the last one, and are followed by a word character.
And it also ignores those that already have a : before the [ or /.

Upvotes: 0

Kushal Bhalaik
Kushal Bhalaik

Reputation: 3384

I know this isn't what you asked but it may serve your purpose:

String yourXPATH = "//party[@id='party1:abc']/abc:person[@id='Trader']/trade/abc:personId[@personIdScheme='urn:xyz:person-id:PEOPLESOFT']/text()";

String[] str = yourXPATH.slit("/");

String myStr = null;

while(int i=0; i<str.length; i++){
    if(i==0){
      myStr= str[i] +"/";


    }else{

    myStr = myStr + "/:" + str[i];

    }


}

//then you can use myStr as the New Xpath

Upvotes: 0

Aaron
Aaron

Reputation: 24812

It looks like you're only adding : after a / if there isn't already a : in the step, so this may work :

match /(\w+[[/])
replace with /:\1

It at least works on your example data.

Upvotes: 1

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