xpath-expressions 0.2.1

Manipulate xpath expressions in pure python

This is a small, lightweight Python library to aide in the manipulations of xpath expressions, allowing you to manipulate them as Python objects with Python expressions. For example:

from xpath import Expression as E, Attribute as A

root_node = E('/root')
all_children = root_node.children         # /root/*
root_node_name = root_node.name           # name(/root)
an_attribute = root_node.attributes[1]    # /root/@*[1]

attrs = A('abc') == 'def'                 # @abc='def'
filtered = root_node.children[attrs]      # /root/*[@abc='def']

# The library handles quoting for you:
attr2 = A('abc') == "def'"
filtered2 = root_node.children[attrs]     # /root/*[@abc="def'"]

# You can also use xpath functions:
from xpath.functions import string_length
length = string_length(root_node.name)    # string-length(name(/root/))
is_length_5 = length == 5                 # string-length(name(/root/)) == 5

There is a lot more you can do, check out the main Expression class.

Not all functions are defined in the xpath.functions` module. To add your own, simply define: ``myfunc = Function('my-func'). Please make a merge request if you want some more added to the library!

Why

Manipulating xpath expressions as strings is error-prone and annoying. This library makes it really simple.

It was split out from XCat into a separate module.