Fwd: Re: Fwd: Built-in *@ vs. node()

Am Mittwoch, 16. Oktober 2002 17:22 schrieb Jeni Tennison:
> Hi Janning,
>
> > In my XML Book "In a nutshell" it says:
> > "node() matches all nodes regardless of type: attribute,
> > namespace..."
>
> It's true that the *node test* node() matches all nodes regardless
> of type. However, a node test never exists alone -- it's always
> used alongside an *axis*, for example:

oh yeah, i am a stupid guy. AXIS is the magic word!... Many thanks
for your detailed explanation below. I forgot my self-made rule when
dealing with XPATH:

"Dont use XPATH shorthands when it comes to problems" which leads
normally to question "What is your axis..." :-)
(my second best rule for XPATH is: try thinking in sets of nodes )

BTW: it is acommon fault in many documentations for beginners to
start with abbreviations of XPATH Expressions. I dont like them. In
XSLT you have to type a lot of things anyway. (ok i dont want to miss
them, but they just help you typing faster, not understanding faster,
but i guess thats common for all abbreviations :-)

thanks a lot.

kind regards,
janning

>   child::node()
>   attribute::node()
>
> The pattern "node()" is a shorthand for:
>
>   child::node()
>
> which matches all nodes *that are children of some other node*.
> Attributes are not children of any node, therefore this pattern
> doesn't match attributes. If you want to match attributes, you have
> to use the attribute axis, e.g.:
>
>   attribute::node()
>
> or:
>
>   attribute::*
>
> or their shorthands:
>
>   @node()
>   @*
>
> So the identity template is usually written:
>
> <xsl:template match="node() | @*">
>    <xsl:copy>
>       <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
>    </xsl:copy>
> </xsl:template>
>
> i.e. match all nodes-that-are-children and all attributes, copy
> them, and go on to process their attributes or children, if they
> have any.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jeni
>
> ---
> Jeni Tennison
> http://www.jenitennison.com/

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