Re: differentiating between *the* document node and a

The type document-node() is what you are looking for, but you may need to use
the <xsl:document> constructor:

<xsl:variable name=result as=document-node()>
  <xsl:document>
    <xsl:copy select=.>
     <xsl:apply-templates select=@*, node()/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:document>
</xsl:variable>

When no @as is specified the value of the variable will be a document node,
per 9.3 Values of Variables and Parameters:

If a variable-binding
element<https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/#dt-variable-binding-element> has no
select attribute and has non-empty content (that is, the variable-binding
element has one or more child nodes), and has no as attribute, then the
content of the variable-binding element specifies the supplied
value<https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/#dt-supplied-value>. The content of the
variable-binding element is a sequence
constructor<https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/#dt-sequence-constructor>; a new
document is constructed with a document node having as its children the
sequence of nodes that results from evaluating the sequence constructor and
then applying the rules given in 5.7.1 Constructing Complex
Content<https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/#constructing-complex-content>. The
value of the variable is then a singleton sequence containing this document
node. For further information, see 9.4 Creating Implicit Document
Nodes<https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/#temporary-trees>.

[https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt-30/#variable-values]

So very important to specify @as when you *dont* want a document node (which
is usually the case) and useful to specify @as=document-node() when you
really do want a document node (for example, because you will be applying
key() to the value of the variable, which requires a document and not just an
element).

This is a particularly subtle aspect of XSLT 2+ and can lead to some subtle
bugs, especially when migrating from XSLT 1 (no @as) to XSLT 2+.

Cheers,

E.
_____________________________________________
Eliot Kimber
Sr Staff Content Engineer
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From: Chris Papademetrious christopher.papademetrious@xxxxxxxxxxxx
<xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sunday, March 19, 2023 at 8:25 AM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re:  differentiating between *the* document node and anonymous
document nodes
[External Email]

________________________________
Hi Dr. Kay,

Thanks for the clarification on applying predicates to document-nodes in the
previous email!

I think my misunderstanding/misuse of terminology obscured my question. Is
there some value of ??? in

<xsl:variable name="result" as="???">
  ...
</xsl:variable>

that is functionally identical to this:

<xsl:variable name="result">
  ...
</xsl:variable>

In which the variable can hold an arbitrary set of nodes while also providing
contextual sibling relationships between them?


  *   Chris

From: Michael Kay michaelkay90@xxxxxxxxx
<xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2023 8:39 AM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re:  differentiating between *the* document node and anonymous
document nodes


As a follow-up question, is there an as="..." expression for an anonymous
document node?

I'm not sure what you mean. All document nodes are anonymous.

Michael Kay
Saxonica
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