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XSLT <xsl:template>

XSLT <xsl:template>​

The <xsl:template> element contains rules to apply when a specified node is matched.

The match attribute is used to associate the template with an XML element. The match attribute can also be used to define a template for a whole branch of the XML document (i.e. match="/" defines the whole document).

note

<xsl:template> is a top-level element.

Syntax​

<xsl:template
    name="name"
    match="pattern"
    mode="mode"
    priority="number">

    <!-- Content:(<xsl:param>*,template) -->  

</xsl:template>

Attributes​

AttributeValueRequired/OptionalDescription
namenameOptionalSpecifies a name for the template.

Note: If this attribute is omitted there must be a match attribute
matchpatternOptionalThe match pattern for the template.

Note: If this attribute is omitted there must be a name attribute
modemodeOptionalSpecifies a mode for this template
prioritynumberOptionalA number which indicates the numeric priority of the template

Example​

Consider the XML document about a bookstore shown below:

books.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="books.xsl"?>

<bookstore>
    <book category="children">
        <title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
        <author>J K. Rowling</author>
        <year>2005</year>
        <price>29.99</price>
    </book>
    <book category="web">
        <title lang="en">XQuery Tips</title>
        <author>Tom Nolan</author>
        <year>2022</year>
        <price>39.99</price>
    </book>
    <book category="web">
        <title lang="en">Learn XML</title>
        <author>Tutorial Reference</author>
        <year>2022</year>
        <price>9.99</price>
    </book>
</bookstore>

We want to list title and author of each book:

books.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
  <body>
  <h2>The Bookstore</h2>
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="book">
  <p>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="title"/>
  <xsl:apply-templates select="author"/>
  </p>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="title">
  Title: <span style="color:#ff0000">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/></span>
  <br />
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="author">
  Author: <span style="color:#00ff00">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/></span>
  <br />
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

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