Retrieving the value of an attribute is similar to the previous example in which we retrieved a node's text contents. In this case we'll extract the value of the URI we added in the previous section. Full code: Appendix G, Code for Retrieving Attribute Value Example.

The initial steps for this example are similar to the previous ones: parse the doc, find the element you are interested in, then enter a function to carry out the specific task required. In this case, we call getReference:

void
getReference (xmlDocPtr doc, xmlNodePtr cur) {

	xmlChar *uri;
	cur = cur->xmlChildrenNode;
	while (cur != NULL) {
	    if ((!xmlStrcmp(cur->name, (const xmlChar *)"reference"))) {
		    uri = xmlGetProp(cur, "uri");
		    printf("uri: %s\n", uri);
		    xmlFree(uri);
	    }
	    cur = cur->next;
	}
	return;
}
      

The key function is xmlGetProp, which returns an xmlChar containing the attribute's value. In this case, we just print it out. Note If you are using a DTD that declares a fixed or default value for the attribute, this function will retrieve it.