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 javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory; import org.w3c.dom.Document; import org.w3c.dom.Node; public class Main { private static final String MESSAGE = "message"; private static Node getNodeById(Document doc, String id) throws XPathExpressionException { XPath xpath = XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath(); XPathExpression expr = xpath.compile("//" + MESSAGE + "[@id='" + id + "']"); return (Node) expr.evaluate(doc, XPathConstants.NODE); } }