XSLT for Dummies

The following bulleted lists give you a sampling of the various relative and absolute location paths Ive talked about in this chapter.

Axis examples

• chapter or child::chapter selects the chapter element children of the current node.

• @ name or attribute::name selects all the name attributes of the current node.

• .. or parent::node() selects the parent of the current node.

• . or self::node() selects the current node, regardless of its type.

• self::chapter selects the current node if it is a chapter element.

• decendant::chapter selects all the chapter descendants of the current node.

• descendant-or-self::page selects all the page element descendants of the current node and, if the current node is a page element, then include it as well.

• ancestor ::page selects all the page element ancestors of the current node.

• ancestor-or-self::page selects all the page element ancestors of the current node and, if the current node is a page element, then include it as well.

• chapter/descendant::page selects the page descendants of the chapter element children of the current node.

Node test examples

• * or child::* selects all the element children of the current node.

• @* or attribute::* selects all the attributes of the current node.

• text() or child::text() selects all the text node children of the current node.

• node() or child::node() selects all the node children of the current node.

• */page selects all the page grandchildren of the current node.

Predicate examples

• chapter[1] or chapter[position()=1] selects the first chapter element child of the current node.

• chapter[last()] selects the last chapter element child of the current node.

• U following-sibling::chapter[1] selects the next chapter element sibling of the current node.

• preceding -sibling::chapter[1] selects the previous chapter element sibling of the current node.

• chapter[@level] selects all the chapter element children of the current node that have a level attribute defined.

• chapter[not(@level)] selects all the chapter element children of the current node that dont have a level attribute defined.

• chapter[@level='advanced'] selects all the chapter element children of the current node that have a level attribute with a value of advanced .

• chapter[summary] selects all the chapter element children of the current node that have one or more summary element children.

• chapter[2][@level] selects the second chapter element child of the current node if it has a level attribute defined.

• chapter[@level][2] selects the second chapter element child of the current node that has a level attribute defined.

Absolute path examples

• / selects the root node.

• /descendant::chapter selects all the chapter elements in the same document as the current node.

• /descendant::summary[12] selects the 12th summary element in the document.