XPath 3.0 Conformance
Saxon 9.4 implements nearly all the new features of the XPath 3.0 specification. At the time of writing the Working Groups are preparing a new Working Draft which is intended to have "Last Call" status; it is this working draft that has been used as the basis for this release.
New features that are fully implemented include the following:
-
String contatenation operator
|| -
Simple mapping operator
! -
Casting is allowed from a string to a union or list type
-
Union types, provided they meet certain rules, can be used as a
SequenceType -
Dynamic function call (Functions are first class values (items) in the data model)
-
Function literals, for example
substring#2 -
Inline functions, for example
function($i) {$i*$i} -
Partial application of functions, for example
concat('$', ?) -
Let expressions (
let $v := expr return f($v)) -
EQNames (
'uri':local) wherever QNames are allowed
Maps are implemented in XPath 3.0 as described in the XSLT 3.0 specification. This is true whether or not the XPath processor is being invoked in an XSLT context. For details see Maps in XPath 3.0.