How would I accomplish this?

My xml file looks like this:

<a...>

<a...>

<a...>
...

I want to create an stylesheet that do some stuff within the a element's attributes but wihtouht creating a new element everytime it finds the a element, right now i have

<xsl:template match=a>
<xsl:element name="x">
<xs:apply templates/>
</>

So every time it find the element a creates x, is there any way to just create the element x just once then apply the tempates?.

thanks.

You say: My xml file looks like this:

<a...>

<a...>

<a...>
...

But it can't do, that wouldn't be well formed. There must be an outer element, let's call it B. If you want to create the element x just once, then create it in the template rule with match="B".

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

You are right. I didn't explain myself correctly. my xml looks like this:

<a>
 <b/>
 <c/>
 <c/>
 <c/>
 <c/>
</a>

Then my xsl:

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

then

<xsl:tempate match=c>
<xsl:element name=x>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
....

So I still cant see a way to create the element x just once.