DOMXPath $html->query('//p[@class=“myclass”]/a')->item(0); not working

Question

DOMXPath $html->query('//p[@class="myclass"]/a')->item(0); is not working.

Here is the HTML:

<p class="username">
<img src="http://static1.tryal.com/img/b.gif" onclick="lalalaa()" class="a12s_iYblt4hN_DkIt_GoiyOtu8 opsi" />
<b>
<a href="/about"><b>Lalala.</b></a>
</b>
</p>


$name = $html->query('//p[@class="username"]/a')->item(0)->nodeValue; 
//This doesn't return the name "Lalala.";

$name = $html->query('//p[@class="username"]')->item(0)->nodeValue; 
//This works just fine.

Why isn't this tree working? Am I typing it wrong?

Thank you very much in advance.

Answer 1

The xpath you have specified didn't provide any result (or an result with no elements to be precise). You can fix that by not letting the b element slip through:

$name = $html->query('//p[@class="username"]/b/a')->item(0)->nodeValue; 
                                            ^^^

or by not making a a direct/immediate child from p but somewhere deeper as well ( descendant of , double slash // in xpath):

$name = $html->query('//p[@class="username"]//a')->item(0)->nodeValue; 
                                            ^^

Answer 2

Try

$name = $html->query('//p[@class="username"]//a')->item(0)->nodeValue;

You are looking for 'a' child of (single slash) 'p', while what you want I understand is 'a' descendant of (double slash) 'p'