IMPORTXML for structured data in Google Sheets - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

📊 Formula Result

intermediate

Extracting all headlines from a news website

You want to extract all the main headlines from a news website using IMPORTXML. The headlines are inside <h2> tags with class 'headline'. Which formula will correctly extract these headlines?

A =IMPORTXML("https://example-news.com", "//div[@class='headline']")

B =IMPORTXML("https://example-news.com", "//h2[@class='headline']")

C =IMPORTXML("https://example-news.com", "//h1[@class='headline']")

D =IMPORTXML("https://example-news.com", "//headline")

💡 Hint

Remember that IMPORTXML uses XPath syntax to select elements by tag and attribute.

The correct XPath to select all <h2> tags with class 'headline' is //h2[@class='headline']. Option B uses this correctly. Other options select wrong tags or non-existent tags.

📊 Formula Result

intermediate

Extracting all links from a webpage

You want to get all URLs from the links (<a> tags) on a webpage using IMPORTXML. Which formula will return the href attribute of all <a> tags?

A =IMPORTXML("https://example.com", "//href")

B =IMPORTXML("https://example.com", "//a/href")

C =IMPORTXML("https://example.com", "//a/@href")

D =IMPORTXML("https://example.com", "//a[href]")

💡 Hint

To get attribute values in XPath, use @attribute_name.

Option C correctly uses //a/@href to select the href attribute of all <a> tags. Other options use invalid XPath syntax or select wrong nodes.

❓ Function Choice

advanced

Choosing the right XPath to extract product prices

A webpage shows product prices inside <span> tags with class 'price'. Which XPath expression will correctly extract all prices using IMPORTXML?

A //span[@class='price']

B //span[class='price']

C //span[@class=price]

D //span[@class='Price']

💡 Hint

XPath attribute values must be in quotes and attribute name is case-sensitive.

Option A uses correct XPath syntax with attribute selector and quotes. Option A misses @, C misses quotes, D uses wrong case for class value.

🎯 Scenario

advanced

Handling dynamic content with IMPORTXML

You try to use IMPORTXML to get data from a webpage, but the formula returns #N/A with 'Imported content is empty'. The webpage content is loaded dynamically by JavaScript after page load. What is the best explanation?

A IMPORTXML cannot extract data generated by JavaScript after page load because it fetches only static HTML.

B The XPath expression is incorrect and does not match any elements.

C The website blocks IMPORTXML requests with a firewall.

D The spreadsheet has reached its formula limit and cannot process more IMPORTXML calls.

💡 Hint

Think about how IMPORTXML fetches webpage data and what it can see.

IMPORTXML fetches the static HTML source only. It cannot see content loaded later by JavaScript, so it returns empty results if data is dynamic.

❓ data_analysis

expert

Counting the number of items extracted by IMPORTXML

You use the formula =IMPORTXML("https://example.com/products", "//div[@class='item-name']") to get product names. The result fills cells A1:A10. What is the formula to count how many product names were extracted?

A =ROWS(A1:A10)

B =COUNT(A1:A10)

C =COUNTIF(A1:A10, "*")

D =COUNTA(A1:A10)

💡 Hint

Think about which function counts non-empty cells regardless of data type.

COUNTA counts all non-empty cells including text. COUNT counts only numbers, so it would miss text product names. COUNTIF with "*" also counts non-empty text but COUNTA is simpler. ROWS counts total rows regardless of content.