What are the functions of XPath in Python?

There are several main purposes for using XPath in Python.

1. Analyze HTML/XML documents: Using XPath allows for parsing HTML or XML documents and extracting the necessary data.
2. Locating elements: Using XPath, you can locate specific elements in HTML or XML documents, such as tags, attributes, text, etc. Elements can be located based on their hierarchical relationship, attribute values, etc.
3. Extracting data: Using XPath, one can extract the necessary information from HTML or XML documents, such as grabbing titles, links, prices, and other details from web pages.
4. Data selection and filtering: With XPath, data can be filtered and extracted based on specific conditions.
5. Data cleaning and transformation: XPath can be used to clean and transform extracted data, such as removing white spaces, formatting dates, etc.

In general, XPath is a powerful tool for locating and manipulating XML/HTML documents, and it can be used in Python to parse and extract data, making it convenient for data scraping and processing.