The |
operator was available in XPath 1.0; the keyword union
has been
added in XPath 2.0 as a synonym, because it is familiar to SQL users.
The expression E1 union E2
selects all nodes that are in either E1
or
E2
or both. Both expressions must return sequences of nodes. The results
are returned in document order. For example, /book/(chapter | appendix)/sections
returns
all section
elements within a chapter
or appendix
of the
selected book
element.