What is the difference between .// and //* in XPath?

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There are several distinct, key XPath concepts in play here…

Absolute vs relative XPaths (/ vs .)

  • / introduces an absolute location path, starting at the root of the document.
  • . introduces a relative location path, starting at the context node.

Named element vs any element (ename vs *)

  • /ename selects an ename root element
    • ./ename selects all ename child elements of the current node.
  • /* selects the root element, regardless of name.
    • ./* or * selects all child elements of the context node, regardless of name.

descendant-or-self axis (//*)

  • //ename selects all ename elements in a document.
    • .//ename selects all ename elements at or beneath the context node.
  • //* selects all elements in a document, regardless of name.
    • .//* selects all elements, regardless of name, at or beneath the context node.

With these concepts in mind, here are answers to your specific questions…

  • .//*[@id='Passwd'] means to select all elements at or beneath the
    current context node that have an id attribute value equal to
    'Passwd'.
  • //child::input[@type="password"] can be simplified to
    //input[@type="password"] and means to select all input elements
    in the document that have an type attribute value equal to 'password'.

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