Summary

An xml being referenced may designate 1 or more Namespaces used. This can be difficult to reference if you are attempting to look for a specific element but are unsure of the Namespace used.

Description

Using a wild card (*) along with specifying local-name will return a result regardless of namespace.

Example

This xpath will specify /Project/PropertyGroup/IncludePath from the  Sample XML, regardless of the xml namespace given:

/*[local-name()='Project']/*[local-name()='PropertyGroup']/*[local-name()='IncludePath']

Sample XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

PropertyGroup>
<IncludePath>SampleValue</IncludePath>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Additional Info

It is worth noting, additional xpath syntax may be needed if the elements appear more than once.

Here is some info on namespaces:

https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_namespaces.asp