Re: [xsl] deep copy without attributes

Subject: Re: [xsl] deep copy without attributes
From: Ihe Onwuka <ihe.onwuka@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 20 May 2013 17:24:21 +0100
On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 4:35 PM, Andrew Welch <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Well I'm not going to get hung up on that semantic - after all copy
>> doesn't copy and as for copy of  - well what does that mean.
>
> I agree it's not easy - 'what is the difference between xsl:copy and
> xsl:copy-of?' is an interview question I use.
>
> Once you can visualise the input xml as a tree of nodes in your mind
> it's becomes straightforward, especially with attributes and their
> values as a single node (you can't shallow copy an attribute and
> change its value).  A shallow copy (xsl:copy) copies a single node to
> the result (and just that node) while a deep copy (xsl:copy-of) copies
> the whole subtree.
>
......
<snipped/>
...........
> Lots of xslt is non-intuitive, but that doesn't mean it's
> cumbersome... try doing the same task in any other language.
>

You are speaking as and to the cognoscenti only.

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