xsl:for-each

The xsl:for-each element causes iteration over the nodes selected by a node-set expression. It can be used as an alternative to xsl:apply-templates where the child nodes of the current node are known in advance. There is a mandatory attribute, select, which defines the nodes over which the statement will iterate. The XSLT statements subordinate to the xsl:for-each element are applied to each source node selected by the node-set expression in turn.

The full syntax of expressions is outlined in XPath Expression Syntax.

The xsl:for-each element may have one or more xsl:sort child elements to define the order of sorting. The sort keys are specified in major-to-minor order.

The expression used for sorting can be any string expressions. The following are particularly useful:

• element-name, e.g. TITLE: sorts on the value of a child element

• attribute-name, e.g. @CODE: sorts on the value of an attribute

• ".": sorts on the character content of the element

• "qname(.)": sorts on the name of the element

Example 1:

<xsl:template match="BOOKLIST">
    <TABLE>
    <xsl:for-each select="BOOK">
        <TR>
        <TD><xsl:value-of select="TITLE"/></TD>
        <TD><xsl:value-of select="AUTHOR"/></TD>
        <TD><xsl:value-of select="ISBN"/></TD>
        </TR>        
    </xsl:for-each>
    </TABLE>
</xsl:template>

Example 2: sorting with xsl:for-each. This example also shows a template for a BOOKLIST element which processes all the child BOOK elements in order of their child AUTHOR elements.

<xsl:template match="BOOKLIST">
    <h2>
        <xsl:for-each select="BOOK">
            <xsl:sort select="AUTHOR"/>
            <p>AUTHOR: <xsl:value-of select="AUTHOR"/></p>
            <p>TITLE: <xsl:value-of select="TITLE"/></p>
            <hr/>
        </xsl:for-each>            
    </h2>
</xsl:template>