Locate specific sections of your XML documents with XPath

XML is a data format concerned primarily with compatibility and flexibility. But as useful as XML is, it's limited without the abilities to find specific portions of a document quickly and to filter and selectively locate data within a document. XPath provides the ability to easily reference specific text, elements, and attributes within a document—and with a fairly low learning curve. Additionally, XPath is key to many other XML vocabularies and technologies, such as XSL and XQuery.

You can learn the fundamentals of XPath, including all of its various selectors and semantics, in an example-driven and hands-on manner from the this IBM DeveloperWorks tutorial..