The attribute Axis

• The attribute axis selects an attribute node contained by the context node.

• For example, the XPointer

  /descendant::SPOUSE/attribute::IDREF

  selects all IDREF attributes of all SPOUSE elements in the document.

• The attribute axis can be abbreviated by an @ sign.

  //SPOUSE/@IDREF

  selects all IDREF attributes of all SPOUSE elements in the document.

• @* is a general abbreviation for an attribute with any name. Thus

  //SPOUSE/@*

  indicates all attributes of all SPOUSE elements.

• For another example, to find all PERSON elements in the document http://www.theharolds.com/genealogy.xml whose FATHER attribute is Jean Francois Bellau (ID p2), you could write

  //PERSON[@FATHER="p2"].