• Chapter 1: Getting Started with Stylus Studio
• Chapter 2: Editing and Querying XML
• Chapter 3: Converting Non-XML Files to XML
• Chapter 4: Working with XSLT
  • Getting Started with XSLT
  • Tutorial: Understanding How Templates Work
  • Working with Stylesheets
  • Creating Stylesheets That Generate HTML
  • Specifying Extension Functions in Stylesheets
  • Working with Templates
  • Using an External XSLT Processor
  • Postprocessing Result Documents
  • Generating Formatting Objects
  • Generating Scalable Vector Graphics
  • XSLT Instructions Quick Reference
• Chapter 5: Creating XSLT Using the XSLT Mapper
• Chapter 6: Debugging Stylesheets
• Chapter 7: Defining XML Schemas
• Chapter 8: Defining Document Type Definitions
• Chapter 9: Writing XPath Expressions
• Chapter 10: Working with XQuery in Stylus Studio
• Chapter 11: Composing Web Service Calls
• Chapter 12: Accessing Relational Data as XML
• Chapter 13: Extending Stylus Studio
• Chapter 14: Stylus Studio Reference

Home > Online Product Documentation > Table of Contents > xsl:apply-templates

xsl:apply-templates

Selects source nodes for processing.

Format

<xsl:apply-templates [select="pattern"][mode="qname"]>
               

              

                
[<xsl:sort/>]
                   
[<xsl:with-param/>
                   

                
              
</xsl:apply-templates>
               

            

Description

If you specify the select attribute, specify a pattern that resolves to a set of source nodes. For each source node in this set, the XSLT processor searches for a template that matches the node. When it finds a matching template, it instantiates it and uses the node as the context node. For example:

<xsl:apply-templates select="/bookstore/book">
               

            

When the XSLT processor executes this instruction, it constructs a list of all nodes that match the pattern in the select attribute. For each node in the list, the XSLT processor searches for the template whose match pattern best matches that node.

If you do not specify the select attribute, the XSLT processor uses the default pattern, "node()", which selects all child nodes of the current node.

If you specify the mode attribute, the selected nodes are matched only by templates with a matching mode attribute. The value of mode must be a qualified name or an asterisk ( *). If you specify an asterisk, it means continue the current mode, if any, of the current template.

If you do not specify a mode attribute, the selected nodes are matched only by templates that do not specify a mode attribute.

By default, the new list of source nodes is processed in document order. However, you can use the xsl:sort instruction to specify that the selected nodes are to be processed in a different order. See xsl:sort.

Example

In the previous example, the XSLT processor searches for a template that matches /bookstore/book. The following template is a match:

<xsl:template match="book">
               

              

                
<tr><td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
                   
<td><xsl:value-of select="author"/><td>
                   
<td><xsl:value-of select="price"/><td></tr>
                   

                
              
</xsl:template>
               

            

The XSLT processor instantiates this template for each book element.