Question

I need to modify a XML using XSLT 1.0. Basically, I need to copy the attribute (name and value) to one child.

This is the xml:

    <parent id="3450">
        <son1>
            <name>Malcom</name>
            <age>15</age>
            <description>This is the middle son</description>
        </son1>
        <son2>
            <name>Francis</name>
            <age>19</age>
            <description>This is the oldest son</description>
        </son2>
        <son3>
            <name>Dewey</name>
            <age>9</age>
            <description>This is the youngest son</description>
        </son3>
    </parent>

This should be the result:

    <parent id="3450">
        <son1 id="3450">
            <name>Malcom</name>
            <age>15</age>
            <description>This is the middle son</description>
        </son1>   
    </parent>

This is the XSLT that I’m working with:

    <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="parent/son1">    
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:attribute name="id"><xsl:value-of select="../@id"/></xsl:attribute>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="parent/son2" />
    <xsl:template match="parent/son3" />

The XSLT seems to be working, but my question is: Is this the right way to do it?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I would change

<xsl:template match="parent/son1">    
    <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:attribute name="id"><xsl:value-of select="../@id"/></xsl:attribute>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

to

<xsl:template match="parent/son1">    
    <xsl:copy>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="../@id | @* | node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>