Xpath and Xpointer: Locating Content in XML Documents

John E. Simpson has done a remarkable job in elucidating yet another XML-related techology in fun and easy small book. Care is taken to provide comprehensive examples (sometimes with hacker-type tougue-in-cheek approach) which illustrates the points of syntax. One does not need to read the book in comprehensive fashion, after a few chapters, you one can just start coding and refer to the rest as a reference manual. One thing, however is missing, the book does you why you should use XPath or XPointer. What are the real world examples and applications? And what about XQuery? How is XPath related to XSLT? Those points are left for the reader to ponder about, and this is the only reason I am not giving the book 5 starts.

XPath is a crucial but often neglected technology for any developer that need to deal with XSLT in a serious way and it's also fully integrated in many XML parsers, like the ones from Microsoft or ColdFusion. This is a small and very focused book that manages to offer a detailed coverage of XPath mixed with some excellent practical advices. Personally I am not interested in XPointer right now, so I totally skipped the second part of the book, but I think the 120 pages dedicated to XPath are well worth the money

I have read the XPath part of this book.The author covers the subject with simple and easily understandable examples. Fundamentals are covered to the point and easily understood. The book also covers XPath 2.0 Features.Overall its a good reading..

I love O'Reilly books. This book is a great reference book. It also does a very good job of explaining XPath and Xpointer in a more general sense. When I first started working heavily with XML I had no idea what the XPath syntax meant. Now just a month later I can pretty much read anything that's put in front of me. Combine this book with the XSLT book and you really have an awesome combination of material to use.