XPath Find any element with text() within node selection - xpath

Question

I have a fairly deeply nested xml structure and I would like to find an element with a particular value after I have already selected a node. In the sample below I have an array of 'B' and after selecting each of the 'B' nodes I would like to get the text of one of the children (which are not consistent) that starts with the word 'history'
<A>
<Items>
<B>
<C>
<D>history: pressed K,E</D> // could be nested anywhere
</C>
</B>
<B>
<C>
<E>history: pressed W</E>
</C>
</B>
</Items>
</A>
// Select the nodes from the array (B)
var nodes = select(xmldoc, "//A/Items/B");
// Iterate through the nodes.
nodes.forEach(node){
// is it possible to select any element that starts with the text 'history' from the already selected node.
var history = select(node, "???[starts-with(.,'history')]");
all the samples I have seen start with : //*[text()] which searches from the root of the structure.

Answer 1

//B//*[starts-with(normalize-space(), 'history')]
looks like it would do what you intend.
It selects "any descendant element of <B> whose text content starts with 'history'".
Manual iteration to find further nodes is not typically necessary. XPath does that for you. If you must iterate for some other reason, use the context node . to select.
nodes.forEach(function (node) {
var history = select(node, "./*[starts-with(.,'history')]");
});
If you are actually looking for "any text node..."
//B//text()[starts-with(normalize-space(), 'history')]
Or "any element node that has no further child elements..."
//B//*[not(*) and starts-with(normalize-space(), 'history')]