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

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:

  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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