Getting elements with default namespace (no namespace prefix) using XPath

Question

In this SOAP XML file, how can I get the 7 on a using a XPath query?

Answer 1

If you have a namespace prefix set, you could use it, like:

//soap:Body

But since the nodes you are trying to get use a default namespace, without a prefix, using plain XPath, you can only acesss them by the local-name() and namespace-uri() attributes. Examples:

//*[local-name()="HelloWorldResult"]/text()

Or:

//*[local-name()="HelloWorldResult" and namespace-uri()='http://tempuri.org/']/text()

Or:

//*[local-name()="HelloWorldResponse" and namespace-uri()='http://tempuri.org/']/*[local-name()="HelloWorldResult"]/text()

To your xml, they will all give the same result, the text 7.