# Hpricot - Trying to do a few things...are they possible?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-trying-to-do-a-few-things-are-they-possible/70749>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 2, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-trying-to-do-a-few-things-are-they-possible/70749 "2006-10-02T16:39:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HHHHHH](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@HHHHHH](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HHHHHH)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-trying-to-do-a-few-things-are-they-possible/70749/1 "2006-10-02T16:39:07Z")

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I’ve been messing with Hpricot and I’m trying to do a few things that  
aren’t apparently documented or available as part of Hpricot. Can  
someone verify the following…

1. Is there a simple way to determine the element’s current path /  
location? For example, if I find a text node, is there a simple way to  
determine the path of that text node so I can find it again later using  
that path / location as a parameter to the search method? I assume I  
can use the parent method to find the parent and recurse through until  
I get to the root node…is there an easier way?

2. Is there a simple way to find all elements with non-empty text  
nodes? It appears that Hpricot is focused on providing methods for  
finding something if you know the element tag / attributes / classes /  
etc. I’ve been using traverse\_text which requires going through every  
text node and filtering out the ones that are empty / whitespace. Is  
there an easier way to find all elements with non-empty text nodes?

This is in reference to parsing HTML pages which may or may not be  
well-formed.

All in all - I really like Hpricot. I was using REXML and tidy before,  
but this is alot simplier and faster!

Thanks to \_why the lucky stiff for a great little HTML parser…

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**Author:** ![HHHHHH](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@HHHHHH](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HHHHHH)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-trying-to-do-a-few-things-are-they-possible/70749/2 "2006-10-02T17:27:18Z")

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On Mon, Oct 02, 2006 at 11:38:05PM +0900, HH wrote:  
} I’ve been messing with Hpricot and I’m trying to do a few things that  
} aren’t apparently documented or available as part of Hpricot. Can  
} someone verify the following…  
}  
} 1) Is there a simple way to determine the element’s current path /  
} location? For example, if I find a text node, is there a simple way  
to  
} determine the path of that text node so I can find it again later  
using  
} that path / location as a parameter to the search method? I assume I  
} can use the parent method to find the parent and recurse through until  
} I get to the root node…is there an easier way?

I have been using the recursive (well, iterative, actually) way. I  
suspect  
that that is the way to do it since the tree structure is intentionally  
simple and is designed to allow you to move nodes around arbitrarily.  
Maintaining a node’s path independent of its structural location is  
inefficient at best and impossible at worst.

} 2) Is there a simple way to find all elements with non-empty text  
} nodes? It appears that Hpricot is focused on providing methods for  
} finding something if you know the element tag / attributes / classes /  
} etc. I’ve been using traverse\_text which requires going through every  
} text node and filtering out the ones that are empty / whitespace. Is  
} there an easier way to find all elements with non-empty text nodes?

nodes = []  
doc.traverse\_text { |t| nodes \<\< t.parent if (t.content && t.content !=  
‘’) }

} This is in reference to parsing HTML pages which may or may not be  
} well-formed.

I’ve found Hpricot to be remarkably resilient in parsing questionable  
HTML.

} All in all - I really like Hpricot. I was using REXML and tidy  
before,  
} but this is alot simplier and faster!  
}  
} Thanks to \_why the lucky stiff for a great little HTML parser…

I’ll second that.  
–Greg

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HHHHHH](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@HHHHHH](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/HHHHHH)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hpricot-trying-to-do-a-few-things-are-they-possible/70749/3 "2006-10-04T00:02:56Z")

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Gregory – I appreciate your reply. I found it to be very helpful.

One more question that pertains to finding the path recursively…if  
done this way, the path itself is not necessarily unique to the text  
node. It’s quite possible to have 2 different text nodes with the same  
path (e.g. they are in the same table, but in different rows). The  
only way to distinguish between text nodes would be to include some  
sort of index to account for multiple children under the same parent or  
other instances that would create a situation with the same path.

For example, you could have two text nodes that are in the first cell  
of a table but in different rows with the path:

/html/body/table/tr/td

To truely select a particular text node, you would have to know the  
index of the row in order to get to that text node:

/html/body/table/tr[1]/td  
/html/body/table/tr[2]/td

I’m assuming there is no easy way to determine the index as well as the  
path of a particular text node…

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!