XPath Query: get attribute href from a tag

html xpath domdocument

120,830

Solution 1

For the following HTML document:

<html>
  <body>
    <a href="http://www.example.com">Example</a> 
    <a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com">SO</a> 
  </body>
</html>

The xpath query /html/body//a/@href (or simply //a/@href) will return:

    http://www.example.com
    http://www.stackoverflow.com

To select a specific instance use /html/body//a[N]/@href,

    $ /html/body//a[2]/@href
    http://www.stackoverflow.com

To test for strings contained in the attribute and return the attribute itself place the check on the tag not on the attribute:

    $ /html/body//a[contains(@href,'example')]/@href
    http://www.example.com

Mixing the two:

    $ /html/body//a[contains(@href,'com')][2]/@href
    http://www.stackoverflow.com

Solution 2

The answer shared by @mockinterface is correct. Although I would like to add my 2 cents to it.

If someone is using frameworks like scrapy the you will have to use /html/body//a[contains(@href,'com')][2]/@href along with get() like this:

response.xpath('//a[contains(@href,'com')][2]/@href').get()

120,830

Author by

user3239713

Updated on January 05, 2020

Comments

user3239713 over 4 years

I want to use XPath to get the href attribute from an a-tag, but it has two occurrences within the same file. How am I getting along? I need to check IF there is an href attribute with value $street/object, I have got this code and it does not work:

$product_photo     = $xpath->query("//a[contains(@href,'{$object_street}fotos/')][1]");
        $product_360       = $xpath->query("//a[contains(@href,'{$object_street}360-fotos/')][1]");
        $product_blueprint = $xpath->query("//a[contains(@href,'{$object_street}plattegrond/')][1]");
        $product_video     = $xpath->query("//a[contains(@href,'{$object_street}video/')][1]");

It does not return anything at all. Who can help me out?

user3239713 over 10 years

EDIT: How could I check for a specific href attribute? Shall I then use /html/body//a[1]/@href='{$object_street}/x'?
user3239713 over 10 years

Thank you a lot for the effort! Unfortunately, I am still having trouble, I suppose it is not the query that is wrong. Do you mind taking a look at the procedural code for me and putting me on the right track? Because, if so, I will post the code.
mockinterface over 10 years

Make sure your query evaluates the {$object_street} properly, maybe put it in a string first, as in "string s = //a[contains(@href,'{$object_street}fotos/')][1]/@href" and check that s looks allright.
user3239713 over 10 years

I have put my question here, but nobody is responding to it. So maybe you could take a look at it, please?
user3239713 over 10 years

Oh, I am sorry for not including the link: stackoverflow.com/questions/21406694/…
mockinterface over 10 years

Apologies, I am not well versed enough in php to comment on your problem. The question looks too long to me though, maybe you could distill it to a small sample html (as in my example) and the essence of php code that fails? It will make easier on SO users to read and answer.
user3239713 over 10 years

The problem is that I am not sure about where the code fails, whether it is about a conditional, or the XPath query or something else, haha. So I find it hard to distill it.
Jeú Casulo over 5 years

It is returning an array not the specific string value
chovy over 2 years

for some reason i don't get the url back I get <link href="http://example.com" /> instead of <link>{$link}</link>