Examples of XSLT 2.0 Patterns

The table below gives some examples of patterns, and explains their meaning:

Pattern	Meaning
`PARA`	Matches any element whose name (tag) is `PARA`
*``**	Matches any element
`APPENDIX/PARA`	Matches any `PARA` element whose parent is an `APPENDIX`
`APPENDIX//PARA`	Matches any `PARA` element that has an ancestor named `APPENDIX`
`/*/SECTION`	Matches any `SECTION` element that is an immediate child of the outermost element in the document
`*[@NAME]`	Matches any element with a `NAME` attribute
`SECTION/PARA[1]`	Matches any `PARA` element that is the first `PARA` child of a `SECTION` element
`SECTION[TITLE="Contents"]`	Matches any `SECTION` element whose first `TITLE` child element has the value `Contents`
`A/TITLE \| B/TITLE \| C/TITLE`	Matches any `TITLE` element whose parent is of type `A` or `B` or `C` (Note that this cannot be written `(A\|B\|C)/TITLE`, although that is a valid XPath 2.0 path expression.)
`/BOOK//*`	Matches any element in a document provided the top-level element in the document is named `BOOK`
`A/text()`	Matches the character content of an `A` element
`A/@*`	Matches any attribute of an `A` element

In a schema-aware stylesheet, it can be useful to match elements by their schema-defined type, rather than by their name. The following table shows some examples of this.

Pattern	Meaning
`schema-element(CHAPTER)`	Matches any element that has been validated against the global element declaration named `CHAPTER`. More precisely, it matches an element named `CHAPTER` that has been validated against the type of the global element declaration named `CHAPTER`, and any element in the substitution group of the `CHAPTER` element.
`element(*, ADDRESS-TYPE)`	Matches any element that has been validated against the schema-defined global type definition `ADDRESS-TYPE`. The "`*`" indicates that there are no constraints on the element's name.
`attribute(*, xs:date)`	Matches any attribute that has been validated as an instance of `xs:date`, including types derived by restriction from `xs:date`.

XSLT 3.0 introduces a new option on an xsl:mode declaration, typed="strict" or typed="lax", which enables simple name patterns such as match="invoice" to be treated as if they were written match="schema-element(invoice)". This enables the processor to perform stricter type-checking, by checking the content of the template rule against the schema definitions for the invoice element.