Question

I’m trying to write a simple .xslt to process .xml files. But I’ve been confused – why text in tags <tag>text</tag> has also been printed?
Please look at the example:

sample.xml

<source>
    <employee>
        <firstName>Joe</firstName>
        <surname>Smith</surname>
    </employee>
</source>

style.xsl

<xsl:stylesheet version = '1.0' xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>
<xsl:template match="surname">
    <div>
        <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
    </div>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Why after calling: xsltproc style.xslt sample.xml I’m getting

Joe
<div>surname</div>

instead of

<div>surname</div>

only?

Answer 1

This is because Joe is being handled by default. Text nodes are normally output by default. You need to override the default behavior.

<xsl:stylesheet version = '1.0' xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform'>

  <!--Added to match all other nodes/attributes.-->
  <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="surname">
    <div>
      <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
    </div>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>