Hello,

I'm a complete newbie to XSL, and I need to ask some newbie questions:

I've got this line from an XSL file:

<xsl:value-of select="$lureportcaptions[@CAPTIONID=1]/@CAPTION" />

What does the $ and the @ mean?

This is not the way to learn a programming language.

Did you know that Wrox Press, whose forum you are using, publishes books? And that the purpose of the forum is to enable people who read these books to ask for further information and clarification?

I think you are trying to learn XPath by staring at examples, guessing what it might mean, and asking questions if you can't guess. I can tell you that you will never master XPath that way.

Get yourself a book that suits your learning style, read it, and then come back with questions if you are still stuck.

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

I would do that if I had time, but I don't... and google won't help me.

If you're short of time, it's even more important to understand what you are doing.

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

$ , when you declare a variable for example:
<xsl:variable name="dollar-to-know" select="//dollar"/>

to call that variable, whether it may be global or local variable, dollar symbol will used to call that vairbale in template level.

<xsl:template match="variable">
<xsl:value-of select="$dollar-to-know"/>
</xsl:template>

@ is used to declare or call attribute from the element.

in your example.
<xsl:value-of select="$lureportcaptions[@CAPTIONID=1]/@CAPTION" />

they are calling the variable 'lureportcaptions'/atrribute captionid/value of attribute caption.

input file may be like this.

<lureportcaptions captionid=1 caption="somevalue">

output will get- "somevalue"

thank you xsltstarter.