--- title: "XPath Extractor" description: "Configure the JMeter XPath Extractor post-processors: properties, defaults, and practical usage notes for building reliable load tests." url: https://docs.jmeter.ai/components/xpath-extractor/ lastUpdated: 2026-10-01 source: docs.jmeter.ai --- # XPath Extractor *Part of the **Post-Processors** category. Also documented in context in the [full Component Reference](/user-manual/component-reference/#xpath-extractor).* ![XPath Extractor](/images/screenshots/xpath_extractor.png) This test element allows the user to extract value(s) from structured response - XML or (X)HTML - using XPath query language. > **Note** > Since JMeter 5.0, you should use [XPath2 Extractor](/components/xpath2-extractor/) as it provides better and easier namespace management, better performances and support for XPath 2.0 | Name | Required | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | Name | No | Descriptive name for this element that is shown in the tree. | | Apply to: | Yes | This is for use with samplers that can generate sub-samples, e.g. HTTP Sampler with embedded resources, Mail Reader or samples generated by the Transaction Controller. - `Main sample only` - only applies to the main sample - `Sub-samples only` - only applies to the sub-samples - `Main sample and sub-samples` - applies to both. - `JMeter Variable Name to use` - extraction is to be applied to the contents of the named variable XPath matching is applied to all qualifying samples in turn, and all the matching results will be returned. | | Use Tidy (tolerant parser) | Yes | If checked use Tidy to parse HTML response into XHTML. - “`Use Tidy`” should be checked on for HTML response. Such response is converted to valid XHTML (XML compatible HTML) using Tidy - “`Use Tidy`” should be unchecked for both XHTML or XML response (for example RSS) :::note For HTML, CSS Selector Extractor is the correct and performing solution. Don’t use XPath for HTML extractions. ::: | | Quiet | If Tidy is selected | Sets the Tidy Quiet flag | | Report Errors | If Tidy is selected | If a Tidy error occurs, then set the Assertion accordingly | | Show warnings | If Tidy is selected | Sets the Tidy showWarnings option | | Use Namespaces | If Tidy is not selected | If checked, then the XML parser will use namespace resolution.(see note below on NAMESPACES) Note that currently only namespaces declared on the root element will be recognised. See below for user-definition of additional workspace names. | | Validate XML | If Tidy is not selected | Check the document against its schema. | | Ignore Whitespace | If Tidy is not selected | Ignore Element Whitespace. | | Fetch External DTDs | If Tidy is not selected | If selected, external DTDs are fetched. | | Return entire XPath fragment instead of text content | Yes | If selected, the fragment will be returned rather than the text content. For example `//title` would return “`<title>Apache JMeter</title>`” rather than “`Apache JMeter`”. In this case, `//title/text()` would return “`Apache JMeter`”. | | Name of created variable | Yes | The name of the JMeter variable in which to store the result. | | XPath Query | Yes | Element query in XPath language. Can return more than one match. | | Match No. (0 for Random) | No | If the XPath Path query leads to many results, you can choose which one(s) to extract as Variables: - `0`: means random - `-1` means extract all results (default value), they will be named as `_<variable name>__N` (where `N` goes from 1 to Number of results) - `X`: means extract the Xth result. If this Xth is greater than number of matches, then nothing is returned. Default value will be used | | Default Value | No | Default value returned when no match found. It is also returned if the node has no value and the fragment option is not selected. | To allow for use in a [ForEach Controller](/components/foreach-controller/), the following variables are set on return: - `refName` - set to first (or only) match; if no match, then set to default - `refName_matchNr` - set to number of matches (may be `0`) - `refName_n` - `n`=`1`, `2`, `3`, etc. Set to the 1st, 2nd 3rd match etc. > **Note** > Note: The next `refName_n` variable is set to `null` - e.g. if there are 2 matches, then `refName_3` is set to `null`, > and if there are no matches, then `refName_1` is set to `null`. XPath is query language targeted primarily for XSLT transformations. However it is useful as generic query language for structured data too. See [XPath Reference](http://www.topxml.com/xsl/xpathref.asp) or [XPath specification](http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath) for more information. Here are few examples: **`/html/head/title`** : extracts title element from HTML response **`/book/page[2]`** : extracts 2nd page from a book **`/book/page`** : extracts all pages from a book **`//form[@name='countryForm']//select[@name='country']/option[text()='Czech Republic'])/@value`** : extracts value attribute of option element that match text ‘`Czech Republic`’ inside of select element with name attribute ‘`country`’ inside of form with name attribute ‘`countryForm`’ > **Note** > When “`Use Tidy`” is checked on - resulting XML document may slightly differ from original HTML response: > > - All elements and attribute names are converted to lowercase > - Tidy attempts to correct improperly nested elements. For example - original (incorrect) `ul/font/li` becomes correct `ul/li/font` > > See [Tidy homepage](http://jtidy.sf.net) for more information. > **Note** > **NAMESPACES** > > As a work-round for namespace limitations of the Xalan XPath parser (implementation on which JMeter is based) you need to: > > - provide a Properties file (if for example your file is named `namespaces.properties`) which contains mappings for the namespace prefixes: `prefix1=http\://foo.apache.org prefix2=http\://toto.apache.org …` > - reference this file in `user.properties` file using the property: `xpath.namespace.config=namespaces.properties` Another option is to use the following code: ```plaintext //mynamespace:tagname ``` by: ```plaintext //*[local-name()='tagname' and namespace-uri()='uri-for-namespace'] ``` where “`uri-for-namespace`” is the uri for the “`mynamespace`” namespace.(not applicable if Tidy is selected) ## Related - [Correlation & Dynamic Values](/topics/correlation-dynamic-values/) - [Regex Extractor Builder](/tools/regex-tester/) - [Full Component Reference](/user-manual/component-reference/) - [Functions and Variables](/user-manual/functions/)