Hi Jan, Thanks for your feedback to the mailing list.
Your query will return the expected paths if you call BaseX as follows: basex.bat -w -i datafile.xml queryfile.xq A short explanation: By default, BaseX ignores whitespaces when parsing XML documents. By specifying -w, whitespace chopping can be suppresed [1,2]. If you want to permanently disable whitespace chopping, you can achieve that by adding "CHOP=false" option in your .basex configuration file [2] A more comprehensive explanation (just ignore it if you are aware of all the details): In your query, you are checking if the string value of a parent element is identical to the string value of $rootElement. The following comparison is equivalent to yours: //Section[parent::*/data() != $rootElement/data()] This is the reason why it matters if the whitespace-only nodes will be parsed or not. – If your actual objective is to compare the XML structure, you could the following: //Section[not(deep-equal(parent::*, $rootElement))] The following solution compares node identities: //Section[not(parent::* is $rootElement)] Hope this helps Christian [1] https://docs.basex.org/wiki/Command-Line_Options [2] https://docs.basex.org/wiki/Configuration > Using BaseX 9.5.1, cmd-line “basex.bat -i datafile.xml queryfile.xq” leads to > no result at all. I’m convinced there should be result equivalent to the one > of the online xquery tester (https://www.videlibri.de/cgi-bin/xidelcgi) > > For a modified query using string comparison based on fn:path(), BaseX gives > the expected result. > > > > %%% query begin %%% > > let $rootElement := /child::* > > for $x in //Section[parent::* != $rootElement] > > return fn:path($x) > > %%% query end %%% > > > > %%% data begin %%% > > <root> > > <Section id="should not be reported 1" /> > > <Section id="should not be reported 2"> > > <Section id="should be reported 1"/> > > <a> > > <Section id="should be > reported 2"/> > > </a> > > </Section> > > <a> > > <Section id="should be reported 3"/> > > </a> > > </root> > > %%% data end %%% > > > > %%% modified query begin %%% > > let $rootElementPath := fn:path(/child::*) > > for $x in //Section[fn:path(parent::*) != $rootElementPath] > > return fn:path($x) > > %%% query end %%% > > > > Kind regards > > Jan Červák
