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 ".")

This graphic of Crane Softwrights demonstrates the axes graphically.