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Asked: 2026-05-24T20:28:11+00:00

I have a XML file and an external XSLT file. Currently, within my XML

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I have a XML file and an external XSLT file.

Currently, within my XML I refer to an external XSLT link using an href:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="stylesheet.xsl" ?>
     <mytag>
         <t1> </t1>
         <t2> </t2>
         <t3> <t3>
     <mytag>

How can I use inline XSLT instead? Is this possible? If yes, how?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Yes, it is possible to embed the XSLT inside of your XML.

    XSLT is an XML file, so you would just need to make sure that you put it inside of the document element of your XML file, so that the XML file is still well-formed.

    In fact, it is described in the XSLT specification:

    2.7 Embedding Stylesheets

    Normally an XSLT stylesheet is a complete XML document with the
    xsl:stylesheet element as the document element. However, an XSLT
    stylesheet may also be embedded in another resource. Two forms of
    embedding are possible:

    • the XSLT stylesheet may be textually embedded in a non-XML
      resource, or
    • the xsl:stylesheet element may occur in an XML document other than
      as the document element.

    To facilitate the second form of embedding, the xsl:stylesheet element
    is allowed to have an ID attribute that specifies a unique identifier.

    NOTE: In order for such an attribute to be used with the XPath id
    function, it must actually be declared in the DTD as being an ID.

    The following example shows how the xml-stylesheet processing
    instruction [XML Stylesheet] can be used to allow a document to
    contain its own stylesheet. The URI reference uses a relative URI with
    a fragment identifier to locate the xsl:stylesheet element:

    <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xml" href="#style1"?>
<!DOCTYPE doc SYSTEM "doc.dtd">
<doc>
<head>
<xsl:stylesheet id="style1"
                version="1.0"
                xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
<xsl:import href="doc.xsl"/>
<xsl:template match="id('foo')">
  <fo:block font-weight="bold"><xsl:apply-templates/></fo:block>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="xsl:stylesheet">
  <!-- ignore -->
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
</head>
<body>
<para id="foo">
...
</para>
</body>
</doc>

    NOTE: A stylesheet that is embedded in the document to which it is to
    be applied or that may be included or imported into an stylesheet that
    is so embedded typically needs to contain a template rule that
    specifies that xsl:stylesheet elements are to be ignored.

    Depending on how you plan to leverage it, embedded stylesheets may not be supported. For instance, in IE 6/7/8. There are some workarounds.

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