Hi,

I would be very glad if anyone could explain this to me.

Given this xml data
<a>
  <b>blablabla</b>
</a>

and this stylesheet

<xsl:template match="/"/>
  <xsl:variable name="a">
    <xsl:copy-of select="/a"/>
  </xsl:variable>

  <xsl:value-of select="exsl:node-set($a)/b"/>
</xsl:template>

I am aiming to get the output "blablabla" but currently i get nothing.
If I hardcode the variable data like this it works:

..
  <xsl:variable name="a">
    <b>blablabla</b>
  </xsl:variable>
..

I have also tried with xslt 2.0 and skipping the exsl function but i get the same result. Can anyone please explain this. Is copy-of the correct function to use at all here?

Thanks
-Thomas

try it once
<xsl:template match="a">
  <p>
   <xsl:value-of select="b"/>
  </p>
</xsl:template>

The value of $a is a document node whose only child is an a element. To find the b element, you need exslt:node-set($a)/a/b

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference

Thanks Michael, it works beautifully.