XPathSelectElement always returns null

Question

Why is this Xpath not working using XDocument.XPathSelectElement?

Xpath:

//Plugin/UI[1]/PluginPageCategory[1]/Page[1]/Group[1]/CommandRef[2]
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Answer 1

The easiest way in your case is to use XPath axes and node test for node name and position to select the element. Your XPath selection:

myXDocument.XPathSelectElement("//Plugin/UI[1]/PluginPageCategory[1]/Page[1]/Group[1]/CommandRef[2]", myXDocument.Root.CreateNavigator());

Can be easily translate to:

myXDocument.XPathSelectElement("/child::node()[local-name()='Plugin']/child::node()[local-name()='UI'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='PluginPageCategory'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='Page'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='Group'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='CommandRef'][position()=2]");

There is no need to create and pass XmlNamespaceManager as parameter.