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XPointer: Context initialization

An XPointer is basically an XPath expression occurring in a URI.

When evaluated, the initial context is defined as follows:

  • the context node is the root node of the document
  • the context position and size are both 1 (because the root has no siblings)
  • the variable bindings are empty (variables are not used by XPointer)
  • the function library consists of the core XPath functions + a few extra functions
  • the namespace declarations are set as follows:
    xmlns(myprefix=http://mynamespace.org) xpointer(...)


Warning: several levels of character escaping occur when using XPointer in XML documents

  • in XPointer, unbalanced parentheses must be escaped, e.g. ^)
  • in URIs, many characters must be escaped, e.g. %20
  • in XML attribute values, quotes, ampersand, etc. must be escaped, e.g. <

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