How do I get and print node name?

nadavvin · January 3rd, 2007, 06:46 AM

If I have unknown node, how do I print its name?

mhkay · January 3rd, 2007, 07:00 AM

Use the name() function.

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

nadavvin · January 3rd, 2007, 07:42 AM

But it is xpath function and I need to print the value not only get it.

mhkay · January 3rd, 2007, 09:27 AM

XSLT doesn't print anything, it produces a result tree. If you want to get the node name into the result tree, do

<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>

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

nadavvin · January 3rd, 2007, 09:58 AM

It try to:

Code:

$ cat test.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
        <a>a</a>
</root>
[nadav@pcnadav b]$ cat test.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

[nadav@pcnadav b]$ xsltproc test.xsl test.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>

[nadav@pcnadav b]$

Why didn't it work???

mhkay · January 3rd, 2007, 10:06 AM

It didn't work because "/" is the document node, and the document node doesn't have a name.

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

nadavvin · January 3rd, 2007, 11:17 AM

So how can I get the "root" node name?

joefawcett · January 3rd, 2007, 11:21 AM

You can't, it doesn't have a name. The root element name can be shown with name(/*).

--

Joe (Microsoft MVP - XML)

mhkay · January 3rd, 2007, 11:25 AM

As I said, the root (the document node) does not have a name.

If you want the outermost element, you can address that as /* - so either call name() when this is the current node, or call name(/*) to select it explicitly.

(I think you need to do some reading to grasp the basic concepts - this is a very slow way to learn a language)

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

nadavvin · January 3rd, 2007, 12:31 PM

Thanks, It's work!

Code:

$ xsltproc test.xsl test.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
root