DOMXPath::__construct
Note that this method does not provide any means to distinguish between a successful result that returns FALSE and an error.
For example, this will succeed and return FALSE:
<?php $xpath->evaluate("1 = 0"); ?>
One workaround when you know you are expecting a Boolean is to wrap the result with string(). e.g.
<?php $xpath->evaluate("string(1 = 0)"); ?>
This will return a string "false" on success, or the Boolean FALSE on error.
DOMXPath::evaluate
(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0)
DOMXPath::evaluate — Evaluates the given XPath expression and returns a typed result if possible
Description
public mixed DOMXPath::evaluate
( string
$expression
[, DOMNode $contextnode
[, bool $registerNodeNS = true
]] )
Executes the given XPath expression and returns
a typed result if possible.
Parameters
-
expression -
The XPath expression to execute.
-
contextnode -
The optional
contextnodecan be specified for doing relative XPath queries. By default, the queries are relative to the root element. -
registerNodeNS -
The optional
registerNodeNScan be specified to disable automatic registration of the context node.
Return Values
Returns a typed result if possible or a DOMNodeList
containing all nodes matching the given XPath expression.
If the expression is malformed or the
contextnode is invalid,
DOMXPath::evaluate() returns FALSE.
Changelog
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.3.3 |
The registerNodeNS parameter was added.
|
Examples
Example #1 Getting the count of all the english books
<?php
$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->load('book.xml');
$xpath = new DOMXPath($doc);
$tbody = $doc->getElementsByTagName('tbody')->item(0);
// our query is relative to the tbody node
$query = 'count(row/entry[. = "en"])';
$entries = $xpath->evaluate($query, $tbody);
echo "There are $entries english books\n";
?>
The above example will output:
There are 2 english books
add a note
User Contributed Notes
DOMXPath::evaluate - [4 notes]
daniel at danielnorton dot com ¶
2 years ago
Damien Bezborodov ¶
2 years ago
If your expression returns a node set, you will get a DOMNodeList instead of a typed result. Instead, try modifying your expression from "//node[1]" to "string(//node[1])".
yuriucsal at NOSPAM dot yahoo dot com dot br ¶
8 years ago
this class can substitute the method evaluate while it is not validated. Made for Yuri Bastos and Jo�o Gilberto Magalh�es.
<?php
class XPtahQuery
{
// function returns a DOMNodeList from a relative xPath
public static function selectNodes($pNode, $xPath)
{
$pos = strpos(self::getFullXpath($pNode),"/",1);
$xPathQuery = substr(self::getFullXpath($pNode),$pos);//to paste /#document[1]/
$xPathQueryFull = $xPathQuery. $xPath;
$domXPath = new DOMXPath($pNode->ownerDocument);
$rNodeList = $domXPath->query($xPathQueryFull);
return $rNodeList;
}
// function returns a DOMNode from a xPath from other DOMNode
public static function selectSingleNode($pNode, $xPath)
{
$pos = strpos(self::getFullXpath($pNode),"/",1);
$xPathQuery = substr(self::getFullXpath($pNode),$pos);//to paste /#document[1]/
$xPathQueryFull = $xPathQuery. $xPath;
$domXPath = new DOMXPath($pNode->ownerDocument);
$rNode = $domXPath->query($xPathQueryFull)->item(0);
return $rNode;
}
//utilitaries functions off selectSingleNode
private function getNodePos($pNode, $nodeName)
{
if($pNode == null)
{
return 0;
}
else
{
$var = 0;
if ($pNode->previousSibling != null)
{
if ($pNode->previousSibling->nodeName == $nodeName)
{
$var = 1;
}
}
return self::getNodePos($pNode->previousSibling, $nodeName) + $var;
}
}
//utilitaries functions off selectSingleNode
private function getFullXpath($pNode)
{
if($pNode == null)
{
return "";
}
else
{
return self::getFullXpath($pNode->parentNode) . "/" . $pNode->nodeName . "[" .strval(self::getNodePos($pNode, $pNode->nodeName)+1) . "]";//+1 to get the real xPath index
}
}
}
?>