XSL xsl template match

Question

I am just learning XML and how to use XSL files  In an XSL file I found the following term   xsl template match       What does this stand for  And what could I use instead of the    Could I write table or any other HTML tag instead of

User · Answer

The match attribute indicates on which parts the template transformation is going to be applied. In that particular case the "/" means the root of the xml document. The value you have to provide into the match attribute should be XPath expression. XPath is the language you have to use to refer specific parts of the target xml file.

To gain a meaningful understanding of what else you can put into match attribute you need to understand what xpath is and how to use it. I suggest yo look at links I've provided for youat the bottom of the answer.

Could I write "table" or any other html tag instead of "/" ?

Yes you can. But this depends what exactly you are trying to do. if your target xml file contains HMTL elements and you are triyng to apply this xsl:template on them it makes sense to use table, div or anithing else.

Here a few links:

XSL templates
XPath
A good book about XML - Beginning XML

User · Answer

The value of the match attribute of the  lt xsl template gt  instruction must be a match pattern   Match patterns form a subset of the set of all possible XPath expressions  The first  natural  limitation is that a match pattern must select a set of nodes  There are also other limitations  In particular  reverse axes are not allowed in the location steps  but can be specified within the predicates   Also  no variable or parameter references are allowed in XSLT 1 0  but using these is legal in XSLT 2 x     in XPath denotes the root or document node  In XPath 2 0  and hence XSLT 2 x  this can also be written as document-node     A match pattern can contain the    abbreviation   Examples of match patterns    lt xsl template match  table  gt    can be applied on any element named table    lt xsl template match  x y  gt    can be applied on any element named y whose parent is an element named x    lt xsl template match     gt    can be applied to any element    lt xsl template match      gt    can be applied only to the top element of an XML document    lt xsl template match      gt    can be applied to any attribute    lt xsl template match  text    gt    can be applied to any text node    lt xsl template match  comment    gt    can be applied to any comment node    lt xsl template match  processing-instruction    gt    can be applied to any processing instruction node    lt xsl template match  node    gt    can be applied to any node  element  text  comment or processing instructon

User · Answer

It s worth noting  since it s confusing for people new to XML  that the root  or document node  of an XML document is not the top-level element   It s the parent of the top-level element   This is confusing because it doesn t seem like the top-level element can have a parent   Isn t it the top level   But look at this  a well-formed XML document    lt  xml-stylesheet href  my transform xsl  type  text xsl   gt   lt  -- Comments and processing instructions are XML nodes too  remember  -- gt   lt TopLevelElement  gt    The root of this document has three children   a processing instruction  a comment  and an element   So  for example  if you wanted to write a transform that got rid of that comment  but left in any comments appearing anywhere else in the document  you d add this to the identity transform    lt xsl template match   comment     gt    Even simpler  and more commonly useful   here s an XPath pattern that matches the document s top-level element irrespective of its name

[xml] XSL xsl:template match="/"

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