Get the path dynamically of the xml elements

Question

I have a xml like this and I want the attribute which is defined in the "title" using XSL file.

I want to retrieve the value even if I change the elements

catalog with books
cd with book

XML:

<catalog>
    <cd>
        <title att="abce"  att2="false">Empire Burlesque</title>
        <artist>Bob Dylan</artist>
        <country>USA</country>
        <company>Columbia</company>
        <price>10.90</price>
        <year>1985</year>
    </cd>
</catalog>

I tried this method to get att value

<xsl:variable name="outermostElementName" select="catalog/cd/title/attribute::att"/>

but this is specific to this XML only I want it to be genric

Is there any way?

Librak: You may be interested to see a more generic, true XSLT solution than the currently accepted answer. — Dimitre Novatchev
– Dimitre Novatchev, Commented Feb 17, 2012 at 16:14

Tim C · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-17 11:28:07Z

1

Given your current xsl:variable, I think you could use one of the following to more generic

<xsl:variable name="outermostElementName" select="catalog/*/title/@att" />

or

<xsl:variable name="outermostElementName" select="//title/@att" />

The first one assumes the root element is always called catalog. The second one does not depend on an ancestor nodes, but will pick up the title element at any level in the XML.

answered Feb 17, 2012 at 11:28

Tim C

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1 Comment

Librak Over a year ago

yes it is helpful but what if there is no catalog,cd and title i meanit is books,book and title...?? is there any method to detect this...

Dimitre Novatchev · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-17 16:13:12Z

0

The genericity you want to achieve is offered by the XSLT template match patterns.

You can simply have:

<xsl:template match="title/@att">
  <!-- Your processing here  -->
</xsl:template>

and whenever there is an <xsl:apply-templates select="expression"/> instruction such that expression selects a title/@att attribute, the template above will be selected for ptocessing of this attribute node.

This doesn't depend on any other outside context.

answered Feb 17, 2012 at 16:13

Dimitre Novatchev

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