Hi Graydon,

You can use FLWOR expressions also with the update keyword:

<xml><a>A</a></xml> update {

  for $a in ./a

  return replace node $a with $a/node()

}

A shorter (possibly cryptic) variant is to use the simple map operator (!):

<xml><a>A</a></xml> update {

  a ! (replace node . with node())

}

Hope this helps, 

Christian

---

Von: Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk@mailman.uni-konstanz.de>

Gesendet: Samstag, September 27, 2025 7:33:07 AM

An: BaseX <basex-talk@mailman.uni-konstanz.de>

Betreff: [basex-talk] replacing elements with their children using update

Hello!

So I can use

copy $c := $test

modify (for $each in $c/descendant::html:ins return replace node $each with $each/node())

return $c

to unwrap all the html ins elements in some test HTML.

If I try to do this using update (because I am under the perhaps mistaken impression that update can do the same things copy/modify/return can)

$test update {replace node descendant::html:ins with 'CABBAGE'}

works fine; the various ins elements are found and replaced. But if I want to replace that particular ins element with its children, there doesn't seem to be a way to specify the children; the context item is the value of $test, not whatever descendant ins element is being replaced.

How could this be written using update? Can this be written using update?

thanks!

--

Graydon Saunders  | graydonish@fastmail.com

Þæs oferéode, ðisses swá mæg.

-- Deor  ("That passed, so may this.")