Is there a split function in xpath?

Question

I am trying to split a text from a node <extra>text1|text2|text3|text4</extra> into four parts "|" as the delimiter and reconstruct 4 new nodes as follows.

<g:test1>text1</g:test1>
<g:test2>text2</g:test2>
<g:test3>text3</g:test3>
<g:test4>text4</g:test4>

Here is the code I have, which obviously is not working but should explain what I am trying to do.

<%
Dim objXML, x

Set objXML = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
objXML.async = False
objXML.setProperty "ServerHTTPRequest", True
objXML.Load "http://www.thesite.com/v/myxml.xml"
objXML.setProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"

Dim xmldoc: set xmldoc = CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument")
xmldoc.async = false

Dim instruction
Set instruction = xmldoc.createProcessingInstruction("xml", "version=""1.0""  encoding=""UTF-8"" standalone=""yes""")
xmldoc.appendChild instruction 

Dim rss: set rss = xmldoc.createElement("rss")
xmldoc.appendChild rss

Dim itemNode2: Set itemNode2 = xmldoc.selectSingleNode(".//rss")
Dim name: Set name = xmldoc.createAttribute("xmlns:g") 
name.Value = "http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" 
itemNode2.attributes.setNamedItem(name)

Dim itemNode: Set itemNode = xmldoc.selectSingleNode(".//rss")
Dim version: Set version = xmldoc.createAttribute("version") 
version.Value = "2.0" 
itemNode.attributes.setNamedItem(version)
Dim channel: set channel = xmldoc.createElement("channel")
rss.appendChild channel

For Each x In objXML.documentElement.selectNodes(".//SAVED_EXPORT")
  Dim item: set item = xmldoc.createElement("item")
  channel.appendChild item

  Dim str1: Set str1 = x.selectSingleNode("extra")
  Dim gstrarray
  gstrarray = split(str1.text,"|")

  Dim gstr1: set gstr1 = xmldoc.createElement("g:test1")
  gstr1.text =gstrarry(0)
  item.appendChild gstr1
  Dim gstr2: set gstr2 = xmldoc.createElement("g:test2")
  gstr2.text =gstrarry(1)
  item.appendChild gstr2
  Dim gstr3: set gstr3 = xmldoc.createElement("g:test3")
  gstr3.text =gstrarry(2)
  item.appendChild gstr3
  Dim gstr4: set gstr4 = xmldoc.createElement("g:test4")
  gstr4.text =gstrarry(3)
  item.appendChild gstr4
Next
Response.Write xmldoc.xml
%>

Solution

There isn't a split() (or equivalent) function in XPath 1.0.

There is a tokenize() function in XPath 2.0.

One can implement splitting functionality using XSLT 1.0 -- there are several questions wtih good answers in the xslt tag.

Comments

[user357034]

Thank for that, I figured you would come around and have an answer for me :) Silly question, how would I know if can use XPATH 2.0. I am really lost here. I looked at the pages but not helping much. Thanks for your help.

[Dimitre Novatchev]

@user357034: There is no .NET native implementation of XPath 2.0 (and SQL Server's XQuery implementation is of an early working draft). If you are using a compliant XSLT 2.0 or XQuery implementation (such as Saxon 9.x (has a special Saxon.NET version) or XQSharp -- especially written for .NET) then you have XPath 2.0 also as part of them.