net.sf.saxon.xpath

Class XPathExpressionImpl

public class XPathExpressionImpl extends Object implements XPathExpression, SortKeyEvaluator

The JAXP XPathExpression interface represents a compiled XPath expression that can be repeatedly evaluated. This class is Saxon's implementation of that interface.

The class also includes some methods retained from Saxon's original XPath API. When these methods are used, the object contains the context node and other state, so it is not thread-safe.

Author: Michael H. Kay

Constructor Summary
protected XPathExpressionImpl(Expression exp, Executable exec)
The constructor is protected, to ensure that instances can only be created using the createExpression() method of XPathEvaluator
Method Summary
Listevaluate()
Execute a prepared XPath expression, returning the results as a List.
Objectevaluate(Object node, QName qName)
JAXP 1.3 evaluate() method
Stringevaluate(Object node)
Evaluate the expression to return a string value
Objectevaluate(InputSource inputSource, QName qName)
Evaluate the XPath expression against an input source to obtain a result of a specified type
Stringevaluate(InputSource inputSource)
Evaluate the XPath expression against an input source to obtain a string result
ObjectevaluateSingle()
Execute a prepared XPath expression, returning the first item in the result.
ItemevaluateSortKey(int n, XPathContext c)
Callback for evaluating the sort keys.
ConfigurationgetConfiguration()
Get the Configuration under which this XPath expression was compiled
ExpressiongetInternalExpression()
Low-level method to get the internal Saxon expression object.
SlotManagergetStackFrameMap()
Get the stack frame map.
protected voidprivatelySetContextNode(NodeInfo node)
Protected, undeprecated version of setContextNode() for use by deprecated paths within the package (exists to avoid deprecation warnings when compiling Saxon)
SequenceIteratorrawIterator(Item contextItem)
Get a raw iterator over the results of the expression.
voidsetContextNode(NodeInfo node)
Set the context node for evaluating the expression.
voidsetSortKey(XPathExpressionImpl sortKey)
Define the sort order for the results of the expression.
protected voidsetStackFrameMap(SlotManager map)
Define the number of slots needed for local variables within the expression.

Constructor Detail

XPathExpressionImpl

protected XPathExpressionImpl(Expression exp, Executable exec)
The constructor is protected, to ensure that instances can only be created using the createExpression() method of XPathEvaluator

Parameters: exp the compiled expression exec the executable

Method Detail

evaluate

public List evaluate()

Deprecated: since 9.0. This method is not present in the JAXP interface. Either use the JAXP methods such as XPathExpressionImpl, or use the Saxon XPath API instead of JAXP.

Execute a prepared XPath expression, returning the results as a List. The context node must have been set previously using setContextNode.

Returns: The results of the expression, as a List. The List represents the sequence of items returned by the expression. Each item in the list will either be an instance of net.sf.saxon.om.NodeInfo, representing a node, or a Java object representing an atomic value. For the types of Java object that may be returned, see XPathExpressionImpl with the second argument set to NODESET.

evaluate

public Object evaluate(Object node, QName qName)
JAXP 1.3 evaluate() method

Parameters: node The context node. This must use a representation of nodes that this implementation understands. This may be a Saxon NodeInfo, or a node in one of the external object models supported, for example DOM, DOM4J, JDOM, or XOM, provided the support module for that object model is loaded.

Contrary to the interface specification, Saxon does not supply an empty document when the value is null. This is because Saxon supports multiple object models, and it's unclear what kind of document node would be appropriate. Instead, Saxon uses the node supplied to the XPathExpressionImpl method if available, and if none is available, executes the XPath expression with the context item undefined.

Saxon does not allow a NodeList to be supplied for this parameter. It's not clear what this would be intended to mean.

qName Indicates the type of result required. This must be one of the constants defined in the JAXP XPathConstants class. Saxon will attempt to convert the actual result of the expression to the required type using the XPath 1.0 conversion rules.

Returns: the result of the evaluation, as a Java object of the appropriate type. Saxon interprets the rules as follows:

QNameReturn Value
BOOLEAN The effective boolean value of the actual result, as a Java Boolean object
STRING The result of applying the string() function to the actual result, as a Java String object
NUMBER The result of applying the number() function to the actual result, as a Java Double object
NODE A single node, in the native data model supplied as input. If the expression returns more than one node, the first is returned. If the expression returns an empty sequence, null is returned. If the expression returns an atomic value, or if the first item in the result sequence is an atomic value, an exception is thrown.
NODESET This is interpreted as allowing any sequence, of nodes or atomic values. If the first argument is a wrapper around a DOM Node, then the result is returned as a DOM NodeList, and an exception is then thrown if the result sequence contains a value that is not a DOM Node. In all other cases the result is returned as a Java List object, unless it is empty, in which case null is returned. The contents of the list may be node objects (in the native data model supplied as input), or Java objects representing the XPath atomic values in the actual result: String for an xs:string, Double for a xs:double, Long for an xs:integer, and so on. (For safety, cast the values to a type such as xs:string within the XPath expression).

Throws: XPathExpressionException if evaluation of the expression fails or if the result cannot be converted to the requested type.

evaluate

public String evaluate(Object node)
Evaluate the expression to return a string value

Parameters: node the initial context node. This must be either an instance of NodeInfo or a node recognized by a known external object model.

Contrary to the interface specification, Saxon does not supply an empty document when the value is null. This is because Saxon supports multiple object models, and it's unclear what kind of document node would be appropriate. Instead, Saxon uses the node supplied to the XPathExpressionImpl method if available, and if none is available, executes the XPath expression with the context item undefined.

Returns: the results of the expression, converted to a String

Throws: XPathExpressionException if evaluation fails

evaluate

public Object evaluate(InputSource inputSource, QName qName)
Evaluate the XPath expression against an input source to obtain a result of a specified type

Parameters: inputSource The input source document against which the expression is evaluated. (Note that there is no caching. This will be parsed, and the parsed result will be discarded.) If the supplied value is null then (contrary to the JAXP specifications), the XPath expression is evaluated with the context item undefined. qName The type required, identified by a constant in XPathConstants

Returns: the result of the evaluation, as a Java object of the appropriate type: see XPathExpressionImpl

Throws: XPathExpressionException

evaluate

public String evaluate(InputSource inputSource)
Evaluate the XPath expression against an input source to obtain a string result

Parameters: inputSource The input source document against which the expression is evaluated. (Note that there is no caching. This will be parsed, and the parsed result will be discarded.)

Returns: the result of the evaluation, converted to a String

Throws: XPathExpressionException in the event of an XPath dynamic error NullPointerException If inputSource is null.

evaluateSingle

public Object evaluateSingle()

Deprecated: since 9.0. This method is not present in the JAXP interface. Either use the JAXP methods such as XPathExpressionImpl, or use the Saxon XPath API instead of JAXP.

Execute a prepared XPath expression, returning the first item in the result. This is useful where it is known that the expression will only return a singleton value (for example, a single node, or a boolean). The context node must be set previously using setContextNode.

Returns: The first item in the sequence returned by the expression. If the expression returns an empty sequence, this method returns null. Otherwise, it returns the first item in the result sequence, represented as a Java object using the same mapping as for the evaluate() method

evaluateSortKey

public Item evaluateSortKey(int n, XPathContext c)
Callback for evaluating the sort keys. For internal use only.

getConfiguration

public Configuration getConfiguration()
Get the Configuration under which this XPath expression was compiled

Returns: the Saxon configuration

getInternalExpression

public Expression getInternalExpression()
Low-level method to get the internal Saxon expression object. This exposes a wide range of internal methods that may be needed by specialized applications, and allows greater control over the dynamic context for evaluating the expression.

Returns: the underlying Saxon expression object.

getStackFrameMap

public SlotManager getStackFrameMap()
Get the stack frame map. This holds information about the allocation of slots to variables. This is needed by applications using low-level interfaces for evaluating the expression

Returns: a description of the stack frame

privatelySetContextNode

protected void privatelySetContextNode(NodeInfo node)
Protected, undeprecated version of setContextNode() for use by deprecated paths within the package (exists to avoid deprecation warnings when compiling Saxon)

Parameters: node the context node

rawIterator

public SequenceIterator rawIterator(Item contextItem)
Get a raw iterator over the results of the expression. This returns results without any conversion of the returned items to "native" Java classes. This method is intended for use by applications that need to process the results of the expression using internal Saxon interfaces.

Parameters: contextItem the context item for evaluating the expression

Returns: an iterator over the results of the expression, with no conversion of returned items

Since: 9.0

setContextNode

public void setContextNode(NodeInfo node)

Deprecated: since 9.0. Using this method is not thread-safe. Use a method instead such as XPathExpressionImpl that allows the context node to be specified as a parameter to the call.

Set the context node for evaluating the expression. If this method is not called, the context node will be the root of the document to which the prepared expression is bound.

Parameters: node the context node

setSortKey

public void setSortKey(XPathExpressionImpl sortKey)

Deprecated: since 9.0. This method is not present in the JAXP interface. The recommended way to get a sorted result is to use XQuery instead of XPath.

Define the sort order for the results of the expression. If this method is called, then the list returned by a subsequent call on the evaluate() method will first be sorted.

Parameters: sortKey an XPathExpression, which will be applied to each item in the sequence; the result of this expression determines the ordering of the list returned by the evaluate() method. The sortKey can be null, to clear a previous sort key. Note that the expression is not automatically atomized; if it selects nodes, these should be explicitly converted to atomic values by calling the string() or data() functions.

setStackFrameMap

protected void setStackFrameMap(SlotManager map)
Define the number of slots needed for local variables within the expression. This method is for internal use only.

Parameters: map description of the stack frame