📖 What is XPath Tester?
XPath Tester lets you write XPath expressions and test them against XML data in real time. See which nodes your expression selects, debug path queries, and learn XPath syntax with instant feedback. Use it for web scraping, XSLT development, XML data extraction, or Selenium test selectors. Everything runs in your browser.
💡 Example
Input
XML: catalog with book elements — XPath: //book/title/text()
Output
Result: matching title text nodes
🛠️ Common Use Cases
- Building XPath queries for web scraping (BeautifulSoup, Scrapy, Puppeteer)
- Writing Selenium element locators
- Developing XSLT transformations
- Extracting data from XML APIs and feeds
- Debugging XPath expressions for XML processing
📝 XPath Syntax Reference
/root/child — absolute path from root//element — find element anywhere in the document@attribute — select an attribute[1] — first element (1-indexed, not 0-indexed)[contains(text(), "search")] — filter by text content[position()<3] — first two elements
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- 0-indexed thinking — XPath positions start at 1, not 0. [1] is the first element.
- Namespace issues — XML with namespaces requires namespace-aware XPath.
- Using // everywhere — // searches the entire document tree. Use absolute paths when you know the structure.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between / and //? ▾
/ selects from the current node (absolute path). // selects anywhere in the document (descendant search). // is convenient but slower on large documents.
Can I use XPath with HTML? ▾
Yes — most web scraping tools and Selenium support XPath on HTML documents. Browser DevTools can generate XPath selectors.
Are XPath positions 0-indexed or 1-indexed? ▾
1-indexed. [1] selects the first element, [2] the second. This differs from most programming languages.
Is my data private? ▾
Yes — all processing runs entirely in your browser. Your data is never sent to any server.
Is this tool free? ▾
Completely free — no login, no usage limits, works offline once loaded.
Yes — completely free, no login required, no usage limits.
Is my data private? ▾
Yes — all processing runs in your browser. Your data is never sent to any server.
Does it work offline? ▾
Yes — once the page is loaded, the tool works without an internet connection.