BaseX attributes cannot be serialized

Question

I have this simple XML file: ``` 557 Fleece Pullover navy black 563 Floppy Sun Hat 443 Deluxe Travel Bag 784 Cotton Dress Shirt white gray Ourfavoriteshirt! ``` I am reading a book called XQuery by Priscila Walmsley and it says to type the command: ``` doc("catalog.xml")/*/product/@dept ``` so I type in BaseX ``` xquery doc("catalog.xml")/*/product/@dept ``` and I am getting this error: ``` Error: [SENR0001] Attributes cannot be serialized:attribute dept { "WMN" }. ``` Despite that the book that says: will return the four dept attributes in the input document. What am I doing wrong?

Accepted Answer

BaseX is just being strict about serialization. It won't complain if you force the attribute nodes into strings:

```
xquery doc("catalog.xml")/*/product/@dept/string()
```

BaseX attributes cannot be serialized

Solution

Problem