html parsing - XPATH exclude more than one element/tag -

i having issues trying extract text between 2 div tags in xml.

imagine have following xml:

<div class="default_style_wrap" >  <!-- body starts -->     <!-- irrelvent data -->     <div style="clear:both" />     <!-- irrelvent data -->     <div class="name_address" >...</div>     <!-- irrelvent data -->     <div style="clear:both" />     <!-- irrelvent data -->     <span class="img_comments_right" >...</span>      <!-- text want --> 2 members of expedition 35 crew wrapped 6-hour, 38 minute spacewalk @ 4:41 p.m. edt friday deploy , retrieve several science experiments on exterior of international space station , install new navigational aid.     <br />     <br /> spacewalkers' first task install obstanovka experiment on station's zvezda service module. obstanovka study plasma waves , effect of space weather on earth's ionosphere.      <!-- irrelvent data again -->     <span class="img_comments_right" >...</span>     <!-- text want --> after deploying pair of sensor booms obstanovka, vinogradov , romanenko retrieved biorisk experiment exterior of pirs. biorisk experiment studied effect of microbes on spacecraft structures.     <br />     <br /> 167th spacewalk in support of space station assembly , maintenance, totaling 1,055 hours, 39 minutes. vinogradov's 7 spacewalks total 38 hours, 25 minutes. romanenko completed first spacewalk.     <!-- body ends --> </div> 

as may not reflective in code, default_style_wrap parent of other irrelevant divs , spans. relevant text me of tag-less text there other tags in between can see, instance img_comments_right, driving me nuts.

i tried following saw in post:

"//div[@class='article_container']/*[not(self::div)]"; 

but seems not returning text @ all, , if did, wouldn't know how exclude spans.

any ideas?

you should try following query. selects following siblings of <span> nodes, text nodes:

query = '//span[@class="img_comments_right"]/following-sibling::text()';