In addition to providing an explicit path to reach the zip field, it may sometimes be useful to reference the zip field without knowing the full path. In such a case, we can use the descendant operator (//) instead of the child operator (/). To reach the same zip field as above, we can accomplish this by simply using the path //zip.

There is a very important distinction, though, between the child operator and the descendant operator: the descendant operator may match many fields, whereas the child operator will match at most one field. To help understand this, consider the following Record:

{
        "name": "John Doe",
        "workAddress": {
                "number": "123",
                "street": "5th Avenue",
                "city": "New York",
                "state": "NY",
                "zip": "10020"
        },
        "homeAddress": {
                "number": "456",
                "street": "116th Avenue",
                "city": "New York",
                "state": "NY",
                "zip": "11697"
        }
}

Now, if we use the RecordPath /workAddress/zip, we will be referencing the zip field that has a value of "10020." The RecordPath /homeAddress/zip will reference the zip field that has a value of "11697." However, the RecordPath //zip will reference both of these fields.