xsl:apply-templates Element

Directs the XSL processor to find the appropriate xsl:template to apply based on the results of the pattern.

Syntax

<xsl:apply-templates
    order-by="sort-criteria" 
    select="xsl-pattern" >

Attributes

order-by

Sort criteria in a semicolon-separated list. When the first sort results in two equal items, the second sort criterion is checked, and so on. The first non-white-space character in each sort criterion indicates whether the sort is ascending (+) or descending (-). The sort criterion is expressed as an XSL pattern, relative to the pattern described in the select attribute.

select

Context for which the template should be executed. The default value "node()" indicates selection of the current node, and matches all possible nodes.

Element Information

Number of occurrences Unlimited

Parent elements xsl:attribute, xsl:cdata, xsl:comment, xsl:copy, xsl:element, xsl:for-each, xsl:if, xsl:otherwise, xsl:pi, xsl:template, xsl:text, xsl:when

Child elements xsl:template

Requires closing tag Yes. XSL is an XML grammar and, like all XML grammars, all tags must have closing tags to satisfy the definition of well-formed.

Number of occurrences	Unlimited
Parent elements	xsl:attribute, xsl:cdata, xsl:comment, xsl:copy, xsl:element, xsl:for-each, xsl:if, xsl:otherwise, xsl:pi, xsl:template, xsl:text, xsl:when
Child elements	xsl:template
Requires closing tag	Yes. XSL is an XML grammar and, like all XML grammars, all tags must have closing tags to satisfy the definition of well-formed.

Remarks

The xsl:apply-templates element directs the XSL processor to find the appropriate xsl:template to apply based on the results of an XSL pattern. Each xsl:template within this block has a match attribute containing a pattern that defines the types of nodes the template applies to.

The xsl:apply-templates element is equivalent to calling the XMLDOMNode object's selectNodes method to obtain a node list of all nodes that match the pattern, and comparing each returned node with the select attribute in each of the available templates.

Example


<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl">
  <xsl:template match="/">
    <HTML>
      <BODY>
        <TABLE>
          <xsl:for-each select="customers/customer">
            <TR>
              <xsl:apply-templates select="name" />
              <xsl:apply-templates select="address" />
              <xsl:apply-templates select="phone" />
            </TR>
          </xsl:for-each>
        </TABLE>
      </BODY>
    </HTML>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="name">
    <TD STYLE="font-size:14pt font-family:serif">
      <xsl:apply-templates />
    </TD>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="address">
    <TD> <xsl:apply-templates /> </TD>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="phone">
    <TD> <xsl:apply-templates /> </TD>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="*">
    <TD> <xsl:copy> <xsl:value-of /> </xsl:copy> </TD>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>