XML::LibXML::XPathExpression(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation XML::LibXML::XPathExpression(3)

# [NAME](#NAME)

XML::LibXML::XPathExpression - XML::LibXML::XPathExpression - interface to libxml2 pre-compiled XPath expressions

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
  use XML::LibXML;
  my $compiled_xpath = XML::LibXML::XPathExpression->new('//foo[@bar="baz"][position()<4]');
  # interface from XML::LibXML::Node
  my $result = $node->find($compiled_xpath);
  my @nodes = $node->findnodes($compiled_xpath);
  my $value = $node->findvalue($compiled_xpath);
  # interface from XML::LibXML::XPathContext
  my $result = $xpc->find($compiled_xpath,$node);
  my @nodes = $xpc->findnodes($compiled_xpath,$node);
  my $value = $xpc->findvalue($compiled_xpath,$node);
  $compiled = XML::LibXML::XPathExpression->new( xpath_string );
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

This is a perl interface to libxml2's pre-compiled XPath expressions. Pre-compiling an XPath expression can give in some performance benefit if the same XPath query is evaluated many times. "XML::LibXML::XPathExpression" objects can be passed to all "find..." functions "XML::LibXML" that expect an XPath expression.

[**new()**](#new%28%29)

```
  $compiled = XML::LibXML::XPathExpression->new( xpath_string );
    
```

The constructor takes an XPath 1.0 expression as a string and returns an object representing the pre-compiled expressions (the actual data structure is internal to libxml2).

# [AUTHORS](#AUTHORS)

Matt Sergeant, Christian Glahn, Petr Pajas

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

2.0212

# [COPYRIGHT](#COPYRIGHT)

2001-2007, AxKit.com Ltd.

2002-2006, Christian Glahn.

2006-2009, Petr Pajas.

# [LICENSE](#LICENSE)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

2026-10-30 perl v5.44.0

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Document: XML::LibXML::XPathExpression(3pm) from perl-xml-libxml 2.0212-r4 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/shlomif/perl-XML-LibXML