saxon:explain
This attribute may be set on an xsl:template or xsl:function declaration. The permitted values are yes
and
no
. If the value is yes
, then at compile time Saxon outputs (to
the standard error output) a representation of the optimized expression tree for the
template or function containing that instruction. The tree is represented by indentation.
For example, consider this source code:
This produces the output:
Optimized expression tree for template at line 8 in file:/e:/temp/test.xsl: <directElement name="a" validation="skip"> <valueOf> <literal value="12" type="xs:string"/> </valueOf> </directElement>This indicates that the template has been reduced to an instruction to create an element
with name a
, whose content is a single text node holding the string "12". This
is because Saxon has established at compile time that it will always take the "otherwise"
branch of the xsl:choose
instruction. There is no xsl:value-of
instruction in the source code, but the literal text node "12" is compiled to the same code
as if the user had written <xsl:value-of select="'12'"/>
To get this output for all templates and functions in the stylesheet, you can use the
-explain
option on the command line.