Re: [xsl] Using variables in xpath attribute matches

["Andrew Welch" <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

2008/8/21 Martin Honnen <Martin.Honnen@xxxxxx>:
> Matt Lee wrote:
>
>> <xsl:template name="get_attribute">
>> <xsl:param name="attribute"/>
>> <xsl:value-of select="@<<FIXME>>"/>
>> </xsl:template>
>>
>>
>> I would like to use the value of the attribute parameter passed into
>> this template as the attribute match expression in the inner most
>> select.
>
> All you can do is
>  <xsl:value-of select="@*[local-name() = $attribute]"/>
>


But why would you want to?  You really don't need to separate out
getting an attributes value...

Why do:

<xsl:call-template name="getAttribute">
  <xsl:with-param name="'someAtt'"/>
</xsl:call-template>

instead of:

<xsl:value-of select="@someAtt"/>

?

Remember one of the golden rules for people learning XSLT - don't use
named templates!

One of the worst sins of XSLT is not understanding the recursive
descent processing model (apply-templates and template matching) and
instead just using named templates passing around the context as
param:

<xsl:call-template name="handleSomeElem">
  <xsl:with-param select="$current/elem"/>
...

and

<xsl:template name="handleSomeElem">
  <xsl:param name="elem">
     ...

It becomes a maintenance nightmare!


-- 
Andrew Welch
http://andrewjwelch.com
Kernow: http://kernowforsaxon.sf.net/