xquery "Content for update is empty"

Question

This is the first time I've run into the Xquery (3.1) error Content for update is empty and a search on Google returns nothing useful.

If I run this simple query to identify nested /tei:p/tei:p:

for $x in $mycollection//tei:p/tei:p
return $x

I get XML fragments like the following:

<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"/>
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">Histoires qui sont maintenant du passé (Konjaku monogatari shū). Traduction, introduction et
commentaires de Bernard Frank, Paris, Gallimard/UNESCO, 1987 [1re éd. 1968] (Connaissance de
l'Orient, Série japonaise, 17), p. 323. </p>
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">Ed. Chavannes, Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du Tripitaka chinois, Paris, t. 4,
1934, Notes complémentaires..., p. 147.</p>
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"/>
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">Ed. Chavannes, Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du Tripitaka chinois, Paris, t. 4,
1934, Notes complémentaires..., p. 129.</p>

i.e. some with text() and others empty

I am trying to "de-duplicate" the /tei:p/tei:p, but the following attempts return the same aforementioned error:

for $x in $mycollection//tei:p/tei:p
return update replace $x with $x/(text()|*)


for $x in $mycollection//tei:p/tei:p
let $y := $x/(text()|*)
return update replace $x with $y

I don't understand what the error is trying to tell me in order to correct the query.

Many, many thanks.

edit:

for $x in $mycollection//tei:p[tei:p and count(node()) eq 1]
let $y := $x/tei:p
return update replace $x with $y

I also tried this, replacing parent with self axis, which resulted in a very ambiguous error exerr:ERROR node not found:

for $x in $mycollection//tei:p/tei:p
let $y := $x/self::*
return update replace $x/parent::* with $y

solution:

for $x in $local:COLLECTIONS//tei:p/tei:p
return if ($x/(text()|*))
        then update replace $x with $x/(text()|*)
        else update delete $x

Answer 1

The error message indicates that $y is an empty sequence. The XQuery Update documentation describes the replace statement as follows:

update replace expr with exprSingle

Replaces the nodes returned by expr with the nodes in exprSingle. expr must evaluate to a single element, attribute, or text node. If it is an element, exprSingle must contain a single element node...

In certain cases, as shown in your sample data above, $y would return an empty sequence - which would violate the rule that expr must evaluate to a single element.

To work around such cases, you can add a conditional expression, with an else clause of either an empty sequence () or a delete statement:

if ($y instance of element()) then 
    update replace $x with $y
else 
    update delete $x

If your goal is not simply to workaround the error, but to arrive at a more direct solution for replacing "double-nested" elements such as:

<p><p>Mixed <hi>content</hi>.</p></p>

.... with:

<p>Mixed <hi>content</hi>.</p>

... I'd suggest this query, which takes care not to inadvertently delete nodes that might somehow have slipped in between the two nested <p> elements:

xquery version "3.1";

declare namespace tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0";

for $x in $mycollection//tei:p[tei:p and count(node()) eq 1]
let $y := $x/tei:p
return
    update replace $x with $y

Given a $mycollection such as this:

<text xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
    <p>Hello</p>
    <p><p>Hello there</p></p>
    <p>Hello <p>there</p></p>
</text>

The query will transform the collection to be as follows:

<text xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
    <p>Hello</p>
    <p>Hello there</p>
    <p>Hello <p>there</p></p>
</text>

This is the expected result for the query, because only the 2nd <p> element had the nested <p> that could be cleanly stripped off. Obviously, if you can assume your content meets simpler patterns, you can remove the and count(node()) eq 1 condition.