ancestor

element qualifier

Syntax
ancestor namespace-modifier? (element-name | element-name-list) (of element-expression)?


Purpose

The element qualifier ancestor selects an element's ancestor using element-name, or by using the first name in element-name-list that matches an element's ancestor. If there is more than one opened element with the same name in the element stack of the currently-active parse, it will always refer to the innermost one.

For example, in the following XML fragment, when parsing the innermost title element, 

  <manual>
    <chapter>
      <title>First Chapter</title>
      <p>Introduction paragraph</p>
      <section id="S01.01">
        <title>First Section</title>
        <section id="S01.01.01">
          <title>Nested Section</title>
          ...
        </section>
        ...
      </section>
    </chapter>
  </manual>

of ancestor can refer to elements section, chapter, or manual. Additionally, when parsing the innermost title, the expression attribute "id" of ancestor "section" would evaluate to S01.01.01.

Related Syntax
Related Concepts