Package net.sf.saxon.expr.instruct

This package provides classes for the compiled representation of the various elements and other instructions found in an XSLT stylesheet.

See: Description

Interface Summary

Interface	Description
Debugger	This interface may be implemented by an external debugging tool
ITemplateCall	An interface satisfied by all instructions that invoke templates: apply-templates, call-template.
TailCall	Interface representing a Tail Call.
TailCallReturner	This interface represents an expression that is capable of being processed leaving tail calls for the calling instruction to deal with.
ValidatingInstruction	Interface implemented by instructions that have validation and type attributes

Class Summary

Class	Description
AnalyzeString	An xsl:analyze-string element in the stylesheet.
ApplyImports	An xsl:apply-imports element in the stylesheet.
ApplyTemplates	An instruction representing an xsl:apply-templates element in the stylesheet
ApplyTemplates.ApplyTemplatesPackage	An ApplyTemplatesPackage is an object that encapsulates the sequence of nodes to be processed, the mode, the parameters to be supplied, and the execution context.
AttributeCreator	Abstract class for fixed and computed attribute constructor expressions
AttributeSet	The compiled form of an xsl:attribute-set element in the stylesheet.
Bindery	The Bindery class holds information about variables and their values.
Block	An expression that delivers the concatenation of the results of its subexpressions.
BlockIterator	Iterate over the instructions in the Block, concatenating the result of each instruction into a single combined sequence.
CallTemplate	Instruction representing an xsl:call-template element in the stylesheet.
CallTemplate.CallTemplatePackage	A CallTemplatePackage is an object that encapsulates the name of a template to be called, the parameters to be supplied, and the execution context.
Choose	Compiled representation of an xsl:choose or xsl:if element in the stylesheet.
Comment	An instruction representing an xsl:comment element in the stylesheet.
ComputedAttribute	An instruction derived from an xsl:attribute element in stylesheet, or from an attribute constructor in XQuery, in cases where the attribute name is not known statically
ComputedElement	An instruction representing an xsl:element element in an XSLT stylesheet, or a computed element constructor in XQuery.
Copy	Handler for xsl:copy elements in stylesheet.
CopyOf	An xsl:copy-of element in the stylesheet.
Doctype	A saxon:doctype element in the stylesheet.
DocumentInstr	An instruction to create a document node.
DummyNamespaceResolver	A dummy namespace resolver used when validating QName-valued attributes written to the result tree.
ElementCreator	An instruction that creates an element node.
Executable	A compiled stylesheet or a query in executable form.
FixedAttribute	An instruction derived from an xsl:attribute element in stylesheet, or from an attribute constructor in XQuery.
FixedElement	An instruction that creates an element node whose name is known statically.
ForEach	Handler for xsl:for-each elements in a stylesheet.
ForEachGroup	Handler for xsl:for-each-group elements in stylesheet.
GeneralVariable	This class defines common behaviour across xsl:variable, xsl:param, and xsl:with-param; also saxon:assign
GlobalParam	The compiled form of a global xsl:param element in an XSLT stylesheet or an external variable declared in the prolog of a Query.
GlobalParameterSet	A GlobalParameterSet is a set of parameters supplied when invoking a stylesheet or query.
GlobalVariable	A compiled global variable in a stylesheet or query.
Instruction	Abstract superclass for all instructions in the compiled stylesheet.
InstructionDetails	Details about an instruction, used when reporting errors and when tracing
LocalParam	The compiled form of an xsl:param element within a template in an XSLT stylesheet.
LocalParamBlock	Represents the set of xsl:param elements at the start of an xsl:iterate instruction
LocalParamSetter	The compiled form of an xsl:param element within a template in an XSLT stylesheet.
LocationMap	A LocationMap allocates integer codes to (systemId, lineNumber) pairs.
Message	An xsl:message element in the stylesheet.
NamespaceConstructor	A namespace constructor instruction.
NextMatch	An xsl:next-match element in the stylesheet
NumberInstruction	An xsl:number element in the stylesheet.
ParameterSet	A ParameterSet is a set of parameters supplied when calling a template.
ParentNodeConstructor	An abstract class to act as a common parent for instructions that create element nodes and document nodes.
Procedure	This object represents the compiled form of a user-written function, template, attribute-set, etc (the source can be either an XSLT stylesheet function or an XQuery function).
ProcessingInstruction	An xsl:processing-instruction element in the stylesheet, or a processing-instruction constructor in a query
ProcessRegexMatchInstruction	An internal instruction used by the fn:analyze-string function to process a matching substring.
ResultDocument	The compiled form of an xsl:result-document element in the stylesheet.
SavedNamespaceContext	An object representing a list of Namespaces.
SimpleNodeConstructor	Common superclass for XSLT instructions whose content template produces a text value: xsl:attribute, xsl:comment, xsl:processing-instruction, xsl:namespace, and xsl:text, and their XQuery equivalents
SlotManager	A SlotManager supports functions, templates, etc: specifically, any executable code that requires a stack frame containing local variables.
Template	The runtime object corresponding to an xsl:template element in the stylesheet.
TraceExpression	A wrapper expression used to trace expressions in XPath and XQuery.
UseAttributeSets	This instruction corresponds to a use-attribute-sets attribute on a literal result element, xsl:element, or xsl:copy.
UserFunction	This object represents the compiled form of a user-written function (the source can be either an XSLT stylesheet function or an XQuery function).
UserFunctionParameter	Run-time object representing a formal argument to a user-defined function
ValueOf	An xsl:value-of element in the stylesheet.
WithParam	An object derived from a xsl:with-param element in the stylesheet.

Exception Summary

Exception	Description
TerminationException	An exception thrown by xsl:message terminate="yes".

Package net.sf.saxon.expr.instruct Description

This package provides classes for the compiled representation of the various elements and other instructions found in an XSLT stylesheet. The same constructs are also used for evaluating similar constructs in XQuery, in particular, expressions that construct new nodes.

Instances of these classes are constructed when the stylesheet or query is compiled. In the case of XSLT, the objects representing the compile-time stylesheet (in package net.sf.saxon.style) can then be discarded and garbage-collected.

The most important class is Instruction, which represents an XSLT Instruction. In most cases these instructions have a one-to-one relationship with instructions in the original source XSLT stylesheet, and the names of the subclasses (for example ApplyImports, ApplyTemplates, Choose) reflect this.

In XSLT 1.0, XSLT instructions and XPath expressions were quite distinct, and were evaluated in different ways: XSLT instructions in "push" mode (they were described as "writing to the result tree"), and XPath expressions in "pull" mode (reading from the source tree). This distinction is no longer present in the XSLT 2.0 processing model, and the boundary between the Instruction and Expression classes is therefore a rather fuzzy one. Both instructions and expressions can now be evaluated in either push or pull mode. Flow-of-control constructs such as conditional expressions and FOR expressions are evaluated in either mode depending on their parent expression.

Michael H. Kay
Saxonica Limited
28 November 2011