Groovy - Use XmlSlurper with a dynamic path - groovy

Question

Is it possible to access a node of Xml using an arbitary path?
Eg: Given the xml:
<records>
<bike name='Chopper' />
<car name='HSV Maloo' make='Holden' year='2006'>
<country>Australia</country>
<record type='speed'>Production Pickup Truck with speed of 271kph</record>
</car>
<car name='P50' make='Peel' year='1962'>
<country>Isle of Man</country>
<record type='size'>Smallest Street-Legal Car at 99cm wide and 59 kg in weight</record>
</car>
</records>
How do I access the contents of the xml using an arbitrary path, provided as a string -- eg:
XmlSlurper xml = new XmlSlurper.parse(theXml)
assert xml['bike.#name'] == 'Chopper'
assert xml['car[0].country'] == 'Australia'

Answer 1

One method is to use the Eval.x static method to evaluate a String;
def xml = '''| <records>
| <bike name='Chopper' />
| <car name='HSV Maloo' make='Holden' year='2006'>
| <country>Australia</country>
| <record type='speed'>Production Pickup Truck with speed of 271kph</record>
| </car>
| <car name='P50' make='Peel' year='1962'>
| <country>Isle of Man</country>
| <record type='size'>Smallest Street-Legal Car at 99cm wide and 59 kg in weight</record>
| </car>
| </records>'''.stripMargin()
// Make our GPathResult
def slurper = new XmlSlurper().parseText( xml )
// Define our tests
def tests = [
[ query:'bike.#name', expected:'Chopper' ],
[ query:'car[0].country', expected:'Australia' ]
]
// For each test
tests.each { test ->
// assert that we get the expected result
assert Eval.x( slurper, "x.$test.query" ) == test.expected
}