It is only available on Windows (because of the underlying XPath libraries used, I think it is MSXML), and “only” as of Excel 2013, but still can be useful.
Some links below on FILTERXML and related XPath information so I can more easily find their content back.
The quotes are huge, for one because I don’t use Excel enough to be an expert, but have enough software experience to sometimes want to use complex concepts in Excel. Having all this in one place helps me with that goal.
You need to ensure your data is either XML in a well-formed document format, or you can translate your data to well-formed XML.
The links and quotes starting with the question that sparked my interest:
Yes, I know that Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 SP1 have been end-of-life for a long time, but in the wild they are still being used so here is for posterity:
A while ago, I needed to investigate reboot events on some Windows 10 systems. I wanted to use the console instead of the eventvwr GUI Event Viewer.
There is a tool for that called wevtutil which – like eventvwr – uses XPath query parameters and produces XML output.
Postprocessing XML can be a thing, but since .NET has great XML support, you can use PowerShell for that (which for me often is way easier than going the XSLT route, for instance because Windows lacks built-in console XSLT tooling).
Based on the help and the below links, my query command then on these machines turned out to be this: Read the rest of this entry »
The iTunes library xml file is in the same directory as the .itl file. The file is in Apple plist format, and Python’s standard library has a good parser for it.
On my list of Visual Studio Code extensions to try (after I change the shortcuts, as direct Alt shortcuts are not a good idea, luckily those are configurable)
VSCode extension that checks for broken links in an HTML, XML, RSS, PHP, or Markdown file.
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Checks currently open file:
for broken links in anchor-href, link-href, img-src, and script-src tags in currently-open HTML or PHP file
both clearnet and onion (Tor) links
for badly-formatted mailto links, and duplicate local anchors (anchor-name, anchor-id)
for working HTTPS equivalents of HTTP links
Optionally checks for invalid characters and common mistakes (missing tag content, empty attribute value, more).
Also checks for errors in a small subset of semantic HTML tags (in HTML and PHP files): checks that each page has header, main, footer; checks that each heading is inside a section, article, or aside; checks that each section/article/aside has exactly one heading in it; checks that heading values are nested properly.
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To see/change settings for this extension, open Settings (Ctrl+,) / Extensions / “HTML / XML / RSS link checker”.
To change the key-combinations for this extension, open File / Preferences / Keyboard Shortcuts and search for Alt+H or Alt+T or Alt+M or Alt+L.
Always wondered why I couldn’t find a method that would XML encode a string, effectively escaping the 5 illegal characters for XML. There is such a method but its location in the API is not intuitive at all. It’s in the System.Security namespace: [Wayback] SecurityElement.Escape(String) Method (System.Security) | Microsoft Docs
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 