Re: xpath and node deletion

... or is ALWAYS possible to construct an xpath expression which excludes 
certain nodes

in other words to create the  inverse of an xpath?

    //* [@type!="2"]


eg select all elements except those with an attibute = 2


"rvj" <[email protected]> wrote in message 
news:[email protected]...
>
> sometimes it appears to be easier to remove particular nodes from a 
> document than construct muliple xpath  nodes sets
>
> is there any convention or method  for deleting nodes from a document so 
> the bulk of the document is returned?
>
>   <root>
>
>        <node  type=a">
>                <leaf type="1"/>
>                <leaf type="2"/>
>        </node>
>      <node  type=b">
>                <leaf type="1"/>
>                <leaf type="2"/>
>        </node>
>
>
>    </root>
>
>
> and issue  something like  delete(//leaf[@type="2"]) to delete any   type 
> 2 leaf element
>