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Axis Specifiers
The axis of a node test determines what general category of nodes may be considered for the following node test. There are thirteen axes:
- ancestor
-
Ancestors of the current node
- ancestor-or-self
-
Ancestors, including the current node
- attribute
-
Attributes of the current node (abbreviated "@")
- child
-
Children of the current node (the default axis)
- descendant
-
Descendants of the current node
- descendant-or-self
-
Descendants, including the current node (abbreviated "//")
- following / following-sibling
-
Elements which occur after the current node, in document order
- preceding / preceding-sibling
-
Elements which occur before the current node, in document order (returned in reverse-document order)
- namespace
-
The namespace nodes of the current node
- parent
-
The parent of the current node (abbreviated "..")
- self
-
The current node (abbreviated ".")
The following graphic, courtesy of Crane Softwrights, demonstrates the axes graphically:
