XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...
(Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) defines many elements to describe the transformations that should be applied to a document. This article lists some of these elements. For an introduction to XSLT, see the main article
XSL Transformations
XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...
.
XSLT logic elements
Node
Description/ attributes
Container/ children
Example
xsl:apply-templates
Specifies that other matches may exist within that node
Node (computer science)
A node is a record consisting of one or more fields that are links to other nodes, and a data field. The link and data fields are often implemented by pointers or references although it is also quite common for the data to be embedded directly in the node. Nodes are used to build linked, often...
; if this is not specified any matches will be ignored
If “select” is specified, only the templates that specify a “match” that fits the selected node or attribute type will be applied ,i.e. the matching elements by "select" attribute in apply-templates corresponding to the template that match the same elements . If “mode” is specified, only the templates that have the same “mode” and have an appropriate “match” will be applied
Any parent
Can contain any number of xsl:sort and xsl:with-param children
xsl:choose
Multiple choices
No attributes
Any parent
Contains xsl:when blocks and
up to one xsl:otherwise block
…
xsl:for-each
Creates a loop which repeats for every match
“select” designates the match criteria
Any parent
Can contain any XML
…
xsl:if
Yes or No conditions
“test” specifies criteria for entering the if
Any parent
Can contain any XML
…
xsl:otherwise
The default choice if none of the “xsl:when” criteria are met
xsl:choose
Can contain any XML
…
xsl:stylesheet
Top-level element. Occurs only once in a stylesheet document.
“version” specifies which XSLT version is being used
“xmlns:xsl” specifies the URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
of that standard
Top-level element. Contains all XML
…
xsl:template
Specifies processing templates
“match” is when the template should be used.
“name” gives the template a name which xsl:call-templates etc. can use to call this template.
xsl:stylesheet
Can contain any XML
…
xsl:variable
Allows a variable to be declared
“name” is the variable name. It can be referred to later with “$name”
“select” is the value of the variable
Any parent
no children
xsl:when
Yes or No conditions
“test” specifies criteria for entering the if
xsl:choose
Can contain any XML
…
Example XSLT stylesheet using logic elements
XSLT file I/O elements
Node
Description/ attributes
Container/ children
Example
xsl:call-template
Calls the template whose name is specifed. name matches the name in xsl-template
Any parent
children are xsl:with-param
xsl:import
Retrieves another XSLT file
href is the URI of the file
xsl:stylesheet
No children
xsl:output
Describes how data will be returned
method designates what kind of data is returned
omit-xml-declaration indicates if the initial xml tag should be included.
encoding designates how the data is returned.
xsl:stylesheet
No children
xsl:param
Designates a parameter which may be passed into the template with xsl:call-template.
xsl:template
No children
xsl:text
Outputs the tag content
Any parent
No children
ClaimNumber ClaimSeqNumber
xsl:value-of
Outputs a variable
select specifies the variable
Any parent
No children
xsl:with-param
Designates a parameter passed to xsl:call-template. It must be matched by an xsl:param in the template.
Parameter from Ancient Greek παρά also “para” meaning “beside, subsidiary” and μέτρον also “metron” meaning “measure”, can be interpreted in mathematics, logic, linguistics, environmental science and other disciplines....
Client-side refers to operations that are performed by the client in a client–server relationship in a computer network.Typically, a client is a computer application, such as a web browser, that runs on a user's local computer or workstation and connects to a server as necessary...
XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
by adding a line like the following to the source XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
file, right after the root XML tag.
This is described on the page http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2000/10/25/msie/index.html
Other XSLT semantics
symbol
meaning
where used
|
union operator. used to group nodesets in XPath expressions.
select attributes of elements such as xsl:when, xsl:if, xsl:for-each
&
and
any conditional or match criterion, for example xsl:if.test, xsl:when.test, xsl:template.select and xsl:for-each.select
<!--
begin comment
anywhere not in a tag
-->
end comment
anywhere not in a tag
$
start of a variable name
anywhere in a tag, for example xsl:value-of.select and xsl:variable.name
name
the name of the tag being processed. Useful if the matching criteria contains |s (pipe symbols)
any conditional or match criterion, for example xsl:if.test, xsl:when.test, xsl:template.select and xsl:for-each.select
@
an attribute within the XML
any conditional or match criterion, for example xsl:if.test, xsl:when.test, xsl:template.select and xsl:for-each.select
Functions defined by XSLT
The following functions can occur in many XSLT attributes, such as xsl:value-of.select and xsl:for-each.select.
The integers are formed by the natural numbers together with the negatives of the non-zero natural numbers .They are known as Positive and Negative Integers respectively...
that is equal to or is larger than the numeric value of the number argument.
ceiling(3.57)
concat
Concatenates two or more strings, which are listed in the parentheses
concat($fname,’ ‘, $lname)
count
The count function counts and returns the number of nodes in a node-set.
count(elements)
floor
The floor function returns the largest integer that is equal to or is smaller than the numeric value of the number argument.
floor(3.57)
normalize-space
Removes white-space from the beginning and end of the string
normalize-space($fname)
position
The position function returns the position number in the current node list of the node that is currently being processed by an xsl:for-each or xsl:apply-templates element. There are no arguments.
position
round
The round function rounds a number to its closest integer.
round(3.57)
string
The string function converts the value argument to a string.
string
string-length
The string-length function returns the number of characters in a string. The string argument is optional. If omitted, the default is to use the string value of the context node.
string-length(‘hello’)
substring
A segment within a variable value. Substring takes three parameters: the input variable, the first character to be selected, and the length of the resulting string
substring($dob,4,2)
substring-after
The substring-after function returns a portion out of the string specified in the string argument that occurs after the substring specified in the substring argument.
substring-after(‘In 1814 we took a little trip’, ‘we’)
substring-before
The substring-before function returns a portion out of the string specified in the string argument that occurs before the substring specified in the substring argument.
substring-before(‘In 1814 we took a little trip’, ‘we’)
sum
The sum function adds and returns the total value of a set of numeric values in a node-set or list of values.
sum(1,3,7,12)
translate
Takes the string in the value argument, replaces all occurrences of a string specified in the string1 argument with substitute characters specified in string2 argument and returns the modified string.
