XPath Wildcard

In XPath, a wildcard is a special symbol that allows you to select multiple elements or nodes without specifying their exact names. It is useful when you want to match elements or nodes with similar names or patterns. The two main wildcards in XPath are:

1. * (Asterisk): The asterisk (*) wildcard selects all elements, regardless of their names, at a particular location in the XML or HTML document.

For example:

• //* selects all elements in the entire document.
• /bookstore/* selects all child elements under the <bookstore> element.
• //book/* selects all child elements under any <book> element, regardless of their names.

1. @* (At-sign followed by an asterisk): The @* wildcard selects all attributes of the current element.

For example:

• /bookstore/book[@*] selects all <book> elements that have one or more attributes.
• //@* selects all attributes in the entire document.

Using wildcards in XPath allows for more flexible and dynamic selection of elements and attributes, especially when the exact element names are not known or when you want to match elements with similar characteristics. It is helpful in cases where you need to extract information from XML or HTML documents with varying structures and naming conventions.