• 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:variable

xsl:variable

Declares a variable and binds a value to that variable.

Format

<xsl:variable name="variable_name" 
               

              

                
[select = "expression2"] 
                   
[expr = "expression3"]>
                   
[template_body]
                   

                
              
</xsl:variable>
               

            

Description

The name attribute is required, and it must be a string. The value of the name attribute is a qualified name.

The value that you bind to a variable can be an object of any of the types that are returned by expressions. You can specify the value of the variable in several ways:

The difference between the xsl:param and xsl:variable instructions is that xsl:param defines a default value while xsl:variable defines a fixed value.

Scope

For any use of the xsl:variable element, there is a region of the stylesheet tree within which the binding is visible. This region includes the siblings that follow the xsl:variable instruction together with their descendants. Within this region, any binding of the variable that is visible on the xsl:variable element itself is hidden. Thus, only the innermost binding of a variable is visible. The set of variable bindings in scope for an expression consists of those bindings that are visible at the point in the stylesheet where the expression occurs.

The xsl:variable instruction can be a top-level element. If it is, it declares a global variable that is visible to the entire stylesheet. When the XSLT processor evaluates the select or expr attribute in a top-level xsl:variable instruction, the current node is the root node of the document. The xsl:variable instruction is also allowed anywhere in a template that an XSLT instruction is allowed.