# Parsing through XML with REXML/XPath

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-through-xml-with-rexml-xpath/115463>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 25, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-through-xml-with-rexml-xpath/115463 "2007-09-25T16:34:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-through-xml-with-rexml-xpath/115463/1 "2007-09-25T16:34:01Z")

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Hi,  
I need to sort groups of xml data based on the first instances of  
particular elements down deep in the element structure of documents.  
regs = []  
regs = XPath.match(doc, “//registration”)  
regs.each do |reg|  
codes = XPath.match(regs, “//issue[1]/”)# { |element| puts  
element.text }  
puts codes  
end  
I’m getting:  
Energy/Nuclear  
Education  
Agriculture  
…

There are only 86 entries of in the document, but, I’m getting  
over 2,550 results here for “puts codes!” Obviously, it’s looping and I  
don’t know why. It is pulling just the first entries, which I want, but,  
obiously, it’s doing it lots and lots of times.

I’m also trying to parse out these results, so that, I only end up with  
the actual element text, not any attributes. So, for example, in the  
above results, I only want “Energy/Nuclear, Education, and Agriculture,”  
not any of the surrounding stuff. So, I’ve tried this, inside the above:  
codes.each do |code|  
code.to\_s.gsub!(/(._?)/_.\*\</issue\>/, “$1”)  
puts code  
end

Thanks,  
Peter

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-through-xml-with-rexml-xpath/115463/2 "2007-09-25T16:44:48Z")

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On Sep 25, 2007, at 9:34 AM, Peter B. wrote:

> I’m getting:  
> obiously, it’s doing it lots and lots of times.  
> I not sure what you mean by “sort groups of xml data based on the  
> first instance of particular elements”. Can you explain that more?  
> Feel free to email me off-list if you’d like since this isn’t really  
> a Ruby question.

> I’m also trying to parse out these results, so that, I only end up  
> with  
> the actual element text, not any attributes.

To ask for just the text inside an element, you need to use “text()”.  
For example, this would give you a node set containing all the text  
in the issue elements.

/registration//issue/text()

Note that you should only use one slash at the beginning to specify  
that the root element should be “registration”.

> ## Thanks, Peter
> 
> Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/).

* * *

Mark V.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@bodikp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bodikp)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-through-xml-with-rexml-xpath/115463/3 "2007-09-25T17:36:54Z")

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Thanks, Mark. Yes, I’m sorry about the lingo. I’m not that versed in  
XML-speak yet. But, basically, I want to sort all of the   
data sets in my files, just alphabetically. But, as I said, I need to  
put in some headings into my output, and, those headings are essentially  
the text that’s in the very first instance of the element. The  
 element is a child element to . Now, your  
suggestion with the use of /text() worked, meaning, I got just that text  
that I want. That’s great. But, it’s still looping and giving me many  
repeats of these instances.

Here’s my e-mail address, if you’d like to strike up a separate  
conversation.

Thanks,  
Peter  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid