.. _functx_dynamic-path:

===================
functx:dynamic-path
=================== 

Dynamically evaluates a simple XPath path

Description
~~~~~~~~~~~
The functx:dynamic-path function dynamically evaluates a simple path expression. 
The function only supports element names and attribute names preceded by @, 
separated by single slashes. The names can optionally be prefixed, but they must 
use the same prefix that is used in the input document. It does not support 
predicates, other axes or other node kinds. Note that most processors have an 
extension function that evaluates path expressions dynamically in a much more 
complete way.

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   * - **Parameters**
     - **Description**
   * - parent:node()
     - the root to start from
   * - path:string()
     - the path expression

Examples
~~~~~~~~
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   :widths: 50 50
   :header-rows: 1

   * - **XPath**
     - **Results**
   * - functx:dynamic-path($in-xml,'author/first')
     - <first>Kate</first> <first>John</first>
   * - name(functx:dynamic-path($in-xml,'author/@test'))
     - test
   * - functx:dynamic-path($in-xml,'author')
     - <author test="abc">   <first>Kate</first>   <last>Jones</last> </author> <author>   <first>John</first>   <a:last xmlns:a="http://a">Doe</a:last> </author>
   * - functx:dynamic-path($in-xml,'author/a:last')
     - <a:last xmlns:a="http://a">Doe</a:last>

Depends On
~~~~~~~~~~
* :ref:`functx_substring-before-if-contains`.
* :ref:`functx_name-test`.

See Also
~~~~~~~~

.. toctree::
   :titlesonly:
   :glob:

* :ref:`functx_path-to-node`.