I have an xml document as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<entityConfiguration xmlns="http://schemas.infinityinfo.com/entityconfiguration"
version="1.0">
<entity name="account">
<attribute name="accountid" />
</entity>
</entityConfiguration>

I am trying to find all 'entity' elements to iterate and the following are
the snippets:

// in static constructor
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
_configExpr = doc.CreateNavigator().Compile("/entityConfiguration/entity");
XmlNamespaceManager ns = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable());
ns.AddNamespace("", SchemaNamespace);
_configExpr.SetContext(ns);

// then in a method (xvr is a XmlValidatingReader for the above xml)
XPathDocument xpath = new XPathDocument(xvr);
XPathNavigator nav = xpath.CreateNavigator();
XPathNodeIterator itr = nav.Select(_configExpr); // this returns zero nodes.

Basically, the node set returned by the expression is 0. However, if I do:

XPathNodeIterator itr = nav.SelectDescendants("entity", SchemaNamespace,
false);

Then, I will get the correct list of entity element nodes. I could also
move to entityConfiguration node and use SelectChildren("entity", SchemaNamespace)
with success.
Since Select is the only one that takes a compiled expression, I would like
to know why it's not working properly.

Thanks in advance.

Jiho Han
Senior Software Engineer
Infinity Info Systems
The Sales Technology Experts
Tel: 212.563.4400 x216
Fax: 212.760.0540
jhan (AT) infinityinfo (DOT) com
www.infinityinfo.com

Jiho Han wrote:

_configExpr =
doc.CreateNavigator().Compile("/pf:entityConfiguration/pf:entity");

ns.AddNamespace("pf", SchemaNamespace);

With XPath 1.0 you always need a prefix bound to a namespace URI to
select elements in that namespace, even if elements in the XML document
are in a default namespace and have no prefix. You can choose the prefix
as you like when you use the XPath API, and no change to the input XML
is needed

--

Martin Honnen --- MVP XML
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/

Hello Martin,

That worked perfectly. Thank you.

Jiho