---

{ “title”: “XPATH_STRING”, “language”: “en”, “description”: “The XPATHSTRING function is used to parse the XML string and return the first XML node that matches the XPath expression.” }

Description

The XPATH_STRING function is used to parse the XML string and return the first XML node that matches the XPath expression.

:::tip This function is supported since version 3.0.6. :::

Syntax

XPATH_STRING(<xml_string>, <xpath_expression>)

Parameters

Parameter	Description
<xml_string>	Source string. Type: VARCHAR
<xpath_expression>	XPath expression. Type: VARCHAR

Return Value

Returns VARCHAR type, representing the contents of the first XML node that matches the XPath expression.

Special cases:

• The function raises an error if xml or xpath are malformed.

Examples

1. Basic node value extraction

SELECT xpath_string('<a>123</a>', '/a');

+-----------------------------------+
| xpath_string('<a>123</a>', '/a')  |
+-----------------------------------+
| 123                               |
+-----------------------------------+

2. Nested element extraction

SELECT xpath_string('<a><b>123</b></a>', '/a/b');

+--------------------------------------------+
| xpath_string('<a><b>123</b></a>', '/a/b')  |
+--------------------------------------------+
| 123                                        |
+--------------------------------------------+

3. Using attributes

SELECT xpath_string('<a><b id="1">123</b></a>', '//b[@id="1"]');

+----------------------------------------------------------+
| xpath_string('<a><b id="1">123</b></a>', '//b[@id="1"]') |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| 123                                                      |
+----------------------------------------------------------+

4. Using position predicates

SELECT xpath_string('<a><b>1</b><b>2</b></a>', '/a/b[2]');

+----------------------------------------------------+
| xpath_string('<a><b>1</b><b>2</b></a>', '/a/b[2]') |
+----------------------------------------------------+
| 2                                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------+

5. Handling CDATA and comments

SELECT xpath_string(NULL, '/a');

+--------------------------+
| xpath_string(NULL, '/a') |
+--------------------------+
| NULL                     |
+--------------------------+

Keywords

XPATH_STRING, XPATH, XML