XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference, 4th Edition (496 page)

This production rule is the way the syntax is defined in the XSLT specification. However, the following equivalent production rule may be easier to understand, and it corresponds more closely with the description in the
Usage
section discussed later.

Expression	Syntax
PathPattern	/ | RelativePathPattern | / RelativePathPattern | // RelativePathPattern | IdKeyPattern| IdKeyPattern / RelativePathPattern| IdKeyPattern // RelativePathPattern

The syntax of a
RelativePathPattern
(page 693) and that of an
IdKeyPattern
(page 704) are described later.

Effect

The syntax rule reproduced earlier from the XSLT specification can be better understood by listing the seven different kinds of
PathPatter
n
, as follows:

Construct	Meaning
/	Matches a document node.
RelativePathPattern	Matches a node that can appear anywhere in the document. Example: book/chapter/title matches any