Java tutorial
//package com.java2s; import javax.xml.xpath.XPath; import javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants; import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpression; import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException; import org.w3c.dom.Document; public class Main { public static String getValueAsString(Document doc, XPath xpath, String value) { String id = null; try { XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile(value); id = (String) expr.evaluate(doc, XPathConstants.STRING); } catch (XPathExpressionException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } return id; } }