XPath Kick Start: Navigating XML with XPath 1.0 and 2.0 [Paperback]

Steven E. Holzner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0672324113 | ISBN-13: 978-0672324116 | Edition: 1

XPath is to XML as SQL is to databases: XML applications need XPath to locate specific data within an XML document for further processing with other XML applications such as XSLT, XQuery, XPointer, XLink and DOM level 3. With XPath, these applications offer developers a full toolkit for transforming, linking, and searching XML data. Developers need to understand XPath to fully exploit XML in their applications, and they have few resources beyond the W3C specification. XPath Kick Start will examine every aspect of XPath in detail, including its influence on and use with these other XML standards.

With each technique illustrated with real-world examples, the book starts with coverage of the essentials of XPath, including nodes, expressions, functions and operators. The second half of the book details XPath in practice - from manipulating XML data to transforming, linking and querying XML documents.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Holzner has been writing about XML topics like XPath as long as XML has been around. He's written several XML bestsellers, and his books have been translated into 16 languages around the world. He's been on the faculty of both Cornell University and MIT, and teaches corporate programming classes around the country. Dr. Holzner has written over 80 computer books and has been a contributing editor of PC Magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (December 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672324113
• ISBN-13: 978-0672324116
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,150,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steven Holzner is an award-winning author who has written extensively on Ajax and JavaScript. With over 100 titles published, he's sold over a million copies of his books and been translated into 16 languages. As a former faculty member of MIT and Cornell, he teaches corporate seminars around the country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good for catching up to XPATH 2.0, February 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: XPath Kick Start: Navigating XML with XPath 1.0 and 2.0 (Paperback)

I am already familiar with XSLT and XPATH 1.0 so i found the initial 5 chapters kinda dumbed down. the 6th chapter is interesting on XLINK and Xpointer but only the basics are shown here i wished a few real world implentations were used and i wish they went into XQuery more but i guess that would be another book. starting from chapter 7-12 gets interesting with all the different new functions and types in Xpath 2.0. It was an overal easy read and good for updating your XPath skills or read the initial 5 chapters to get a better view on Xpath. I would at least have an introductory experience with XSLT before u read this book although they explain intro XSLT as they go on. SUMMARY: for an intermediate, start reading from chapter 6.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The place to begin if you want to learn XPath, June 23, 2010

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: XPath Kick Start: Navigating XML with XPath 1.0 and 2.0 (Paperback)

There is no question that XML is a leading technology for the description of data. Once data is stored, then the problem becomes how to access it, which is where Xpath is used. Databases can be complex, but the fundamental understanding of XML is not. Furthermore, understanding Xpath is also not complicated, made even easier by this book by Holzer.

Xpath is more than just a way to extract the contents of a node, it is a nearly complete language that allows you to move through an XML data tree, make decisions regarding what data to extract and even perform some basic processing. In this book you will experience easy to understand descriptions of:

*) The fundamental data types supported in Xpath

*) The fundamental operators in Xpath

*) Many of the functions defined in the Xpath library

*) How style sheets are used in conjunction with Xpath to extract and display the data

If you want to learn the purpose and used of Xpath, this book is an excellent place to begin.