select_single_node method

select_single_node(xpath)

Selects the first Node that matches the XPath expression.

def select_single_node(self, xpath: str):
    ...
ParameterTypeDescription
xpathstrThe XPath expression.

Remarks

Only expressions with element names are supported at the moment. Expressions that use attribute names are not supported.

Returns

The first Node that matches the XPath query or None if no matching node is found.

Examples

Shows how to select certain nodes by using an XPath expression.

doc = aw.Document(MY_DIR + "Tables.docx")

# This expression will extract all paragraph nodes,
# which are descendants of any table node in the document.
node_list = doc.select_nodes("//Table//Paragraph")

# Iterate through the list with an enumerator and print the contents of every paragraph in each cell of the table.
index = 0

for node in node_list:
    print(f'Table paragraph index {index}, contents: "{node.get_text().strip()}"')
    index += 1

# This expression will select any paragraphs that are direct children of any Body node in the document.
node_list = doc.select_nodes("//Body/Paragraph")

# We can treat the list as an array.
self.assertEqual(4, len(node_list.to_array()))

# Use "select_single_node" to select the first result of the same expression as above.
node = doc.select_single_node("//Body/Paragraph")

self.assertIsInstance(node.as_paragraph(), aw.Paragraph)

See Also

CompositeNode.select_nodes method