help for xpath with '\'

[Praveen]

I have an xml with attribute value contains '\'.
<Root>
<I Attr= "A.B\TEST1INDX\C.L\TEST2INDX\M.N."/>

how to do xpath for this attribute
A="A.B\TEST1INDX\C.L\TEST2INDX\M.N."
selectNodes("I[@Attr=' "+A+" ']")
but this fails...
how to escape this

thanks
Praveen

 

[Martin Honnen]

I have an xml with attribute value contains '\'.
<Root>
<I Attr= "A.B\TEST1INDX\C.L\TEST2INDX\M.N."/>

how to do xpath for this attribute
A="A.B\TEST1INDX\C.L\TEST2INDX\M.N."
selectNodes("I[@Attr=' "+A+" ']")
but this fails...
how to escape this

With C# you can prefix the string literal with @ e.g.
A = @"A.B\TEST1INDX\C.L\TEST2INDX\M.N.";
you you need to use \\ to escape the backslash e.g.
A = "A.B\\TEST1INDX\\C.L\\TEST2INDX\\M.N.";

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Thanks for Martin's informative input.

Hi Praveen,

As Martin has said, the xpath with '\' char problem here is due to the
escape requirement of C# string rather than XML/XPATH. In other words, you
do not need to escape '\' char in XML/XPATH document, but need to escape it
in C# string. In c# string, you need to either use the "@" prefix such as

string path = @"c:\temp\data\";

or use "\\" to escape "\" without using "@" prefix, e.g.

string path = "c:\\temp\\data\\";


http://www.softsteel.co.uk/tutorials/cSharp/lesson4.html


In addition, for XML document here has introduced those characters that
need escaping in XML document:

#Technical Note: Escape Characters for XML/HDF5
http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/XML/xml_escape_chars.htm

Hope this also helps.

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead


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