Re: [xsl] Functions Returning Nodes in XSLT 2.0

[Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/20/05, Alan Gutierrez <alan-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>    In XSLT 2.0 with Saxon 8.4...
>
>    I've written helper methods that look like so.
>
>    <xsl:function name="fn:user" as="element()">
>      <xsl:param name="login"/>
>      <xsl:copy-of
>        select="document('users.xml')/users/user[login = $login]"/>
>    </xsl:function>
>
>    Making it easier to write select attributes.
>
>    <xsl:value-of select="fn:user()/first-name"/>
>
>    Some of my XPath is getting complicated, so I like to wrap it up
>    into functions.
>
>    I'm wondering if copy-of is smart enough to forgo copying in
>    such cases.

No, xsl:copy-of does what it name says.

>  If not, I could see how it could get expensive to
>    call fn:user every time I wanted a property.
>
>    Is there a better practice for this sort of thing?

Yes.

Use:   xsl:sequence



Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev.