XPathExpression « xpath « Java XML Q&A

1. String javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpression.evaluate(Object item) guarantees it never returns null in all implementations?    stackoverflow.com

From the JavaDoc: returns: The String that is the result of evaluating the expression and converting the result to a String.

/**
 * ...
 * ...
 * @return The <code>String</code> ...

2. XPathExpression dynamic return value    stackoverflow.com

I need to evaluate an xpath expression without knowing its return value in advance. I don't care about the distinction between a Node and a NodeSet, but I do care about ...

3. when does XPathExpression.evaluate throw?    stackoverflow.com

Going through the XPath.compile API, I was under the impression that it would return a valid XPathExpression or throw. Indeed, it doesn't make sense that any compiler would return an ...