Subject: Re: [xsl] xsl:sequence From: "tom tom" <tomxsllist@xxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:50:06 +0100 |
From: David Carlisle <davidc@xxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [xsl] xsl:sequence Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 10:30:24 +0100
> Can anyone tell me when I should be using value-of, when i should be using
> copy-of and when I should be using sequence?
I'll have a try, although I made one or two errors last time.
> >............................................................., some people
> >tend to
> >over-use text() it makes the stylesheet rather fragile as it means that
> >source files with comments in often fail
>
> But how else can you retreive the value of an element when it is text?
use value-of.
In XSLT 1.0
given <foo>a <!-- b -->c</foo>
then <xsl:value-of select="foo"/> is a text node "a c" and <xsl:value-of select="foo/text()"/> is a text node "a " which is usually not what you want to happen just because someone added a comment. In XSLT2 value-of does produce the value of the whole sequence and re-merges text nodes, so actually inthi scase in xslt2 <xsl:value-of select="foo/text()"/> is text node "a c" but it's simpler for you and teh system just to go <xsl:value-of select="foo"/> Of course, if there are child elements of foo and you only want top level text then you may have to use text() to obtain that but that's a ratherr are requirement. Normally if their is mixed content you need _all_ the content, the contentthatjust happens to be at the top level isn't so often interesting.
xsl:value-of always generates a _text node_ so use it when you want to generate text.
<p><i>This</i> is <b>bold</b> text</p>
Then (in XSLT2)
<xsl:value-of select="p" produces a text node "This is bold text"
<xsl:value-of select="p/text()" produces a text node " is text"
<xsl:sequence select="p"/> returns the _same_ p node <p><i>This</i> is <b>bold</b> text</p>
<xsl:copy-of select="p"/> returns a _new_ p node <p><i>This</i> is <b>bold</b> text</p>
xsl:copy-of is there with the semantics it has because of xslt1, although to be honest I can't think off hand of any case where you would need to use xsl:copy-of rather than xsl:sequence.
David
Current Thread |
---|
|
<- Previous | Index | Next -> |
---|---|---|
Re: [xsl] xsl:sequence, David Carlisle | Thread | Re: [xsl] xsl:sequence, David Carlisle |
Re: [xsl] xsl:sequence, andrew welch | Date | Re: [xsl] xsl:sequence, David Carlisle |
Month |