# DOMXPath::evaluate

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0, PHP 7)

DOMXPath::evaluate — Evaluates the given XPath expression and returns a typed result if possible

### Description

public DOMXPath::evaluate ( string `$expression` [, DOMNode `$contextnode` [, bool `$registerNodeNS` = `TRUE` ]] ) : mixed

Executes the given XPath `expression` and returns a typed result if possible.

### Parameters

`expression`

  The XPath expression to execute.

`contextnode`

  The optional `contextnode` can be specified for doing relative XPath queries. By default, the queries are relative to the root element.

`registerNodeNS`

  The optional `registerNodeNS` can be specified to disable automatic registration of the context node.

### Return Values

Returns a typed result if possible or a DOMNodeList containing all nodes matching the given XPath `expression`.

If the `expression` is malformed or the `contextnode` is invalid, DOMXPath::evaluate() returns `FALSE`.

### Examples

Example #1 Getting the count of all the english books

`<?php
$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->load('book.xml');
$xpath = new DOMXPath($doc);
$tbody = $doc->getElementsByTagName('tbody')->item(0);
// our query is relative to the tbody node
$query = 'count(row/entry[. = "en"])';
$entries = $xpath->evaluate($query, $tbody);
echo "There are $entries english books\n";
?>`

The above example will output:

    There are 2 english books

### See Also

- DOMXPath::query() - Evaluates the given XPath expression