RE: Is this node, the document root... best test?

> In a template, matching on "*", I need to test, if this node, is the 
> document root node.

Start by getting your terminology right! By reverse engineering your
code, I think you are trying to test for the "outermost element": that
is, the element whose parent is a root node, in XPath 1.0 terminology.
>     <xsl:when test="not(parent::*)">
>       This works, but is it safe/efficient?

This is fine, except that it will match both the root node and the
outermost element node. If you want to match the outermost element
without matching the root, use

test=".. and not(parent::*)"

>     </xsl:when>
>     <!-- Method (2) -->
>     <xsl:when test="string(name(parent::*)) = ''">
>       This works, but is it safe/efficient?

This is clumsy. If parent::* selects anything, then it will select an
element, and name() applied to an element is always a non-empty string,
and string() applied to a non-empty string always gives you a non-empty
string, so the test is equivalent to test="not(parent::*)".

Michael Kay


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