How deeply does 100 SQL Server Mistakes and How to Avoid Them cover XPath?

Defines navigation, row selection, and ../ traversal but stops short of broader XPath syntax.

XPath

As explained in 100 SQL Server Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

XPath is a W3C language for navigating and selecting nodes in an XML document.

XPath is a W3C language for navigating XML nodes and selecting specific nodes. With SQL Server OPENXML(), an XPath pattern identifies the hierarchy level treated as rows. section 3.4.1

Use XPath carefully when shredding hierarchical XML:

Point the XPath expression at the lowest hierarchy level that should produce rows. section 3.4.1
Use the ../ operator in mappings to traverse from a lower-level node to its parent data. section 3.4.1
Prepare the XML with sp_xml_preparedocument before OPENXML(), then call sp_xml_removedocument to release the in-memory tree. section 3.4.1

Employee contracts

For XML containing Employee, Contract, and Skill nodes, select the lowest-level row hierarchy with an XPath pattern, then map employee and contract values by traversing upward with ../. section 3.4.1

How 100 SQL Server Mistakes and How to Avoid Them covers it

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Also explained in

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BDD in Action, Second EditionAn XPath expression is a path query that selects nodes in a structured document such as an HTML or XML document.
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Practical Automation with PowerShell: Effective scripting from the console to the cloudAn XPath query is an expression defined by the XPath language for selecting nodes in an XML or HTML document tree.

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Related concepts

CSSalternative to · CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is a stylesheet language for specifying the presentation and layout of structured documents and user interfaces.
CSS selectoralternative to · A CSS selector is a pattern that identifies document elements by their names, attributes, relationships, states, or other conditions.
JSON path languagecontrasts with · JSONPath is a query language and expression syntax for navigating, selecting, and extracting values from hierarchical JSON documents.
Page Element Query Languagealternative to · The Page Element Query Language is Serenity/JS's portable query syntax for locating page elements and deriving information from them.
xmluses · XML is a text-based markup language for encoding structured documents and data using elements, attributes, and nested relationships.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of 100 SQL Server Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.