Difference between <xsl:value-of> and <xsl:for-each>

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martinb
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2015 5:04 pm

Difference between <xsl:value-of> and <xsl:for-each>

Post by martinb »

I'm learning XSLT and I've been looking into the two templates xsl:value-of and xsl:for-each, I've created an XML document that contains data for a restaurant menu; I've also created two XSL documents; one uses the xsl:value-of template; the other uses the xsl:for-each- I then applied each XSL document to the XML document and saved each result as a HTML file, here is my XML document.

Code: Select all


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<menu>

    <meal>

        <mealname>Chicken Madras</mealname>

        <description>Chicken pieces in a fiery sauce, with chips</description>

        <price>£7.99</price>

    </meal>

    

    <meal>

        <mealname>Tomato Soup</mealname>

        <description>A tomato soup</description>

        <price>£3.50</price>

    </meal>

</menu>


This is my XSL document with the xsl:for-each template:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"

    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

    

    <xsl:template match="/">

        <html>

            <body>

                <h2>Menu</h2>

                <table border="1">

                    <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">

                        <th>Mealname</th>

                        <th>Description</th>

                        <th>Price</th>

                    </tr>

                    <xsl:for-each select="menu/meal">

                        <tr>

                            <td><xsl:value-of select="mealname" /></td>

                            <td><xsl:value-of select="description" /></td>

                            <td><xsl:value-of select="price" /></td>

                        </tr>

                    </xsl:for-each>

                </table>

            </body>

        </html>

    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
And this is my XSL document with the xsl:value-of template:

Code: Select all


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"

    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

    

    <xsl:template match="/">

        <html>

            <body>

                <h2>Menu</h2>

                <table border="1">

                    <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">

                        <th>Mealname</th>

                        <th>Description</th>

                        <th>Price</th>

                    </tr>

                    <tr>

                        <td><xsl:value-of select="menu/meal/mealname"/></td>

                        <td><xsl:value-of select="menu/meal/description"/></td>

                        <td><xsl:value-of select="menu/meal/price"/></td>

                    </tr>

                </table>

            </body>

        </html>

    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
I've posted this because I want to learn about what each template does and why; I've noticed that the two XSL documents produce different output results when they're applied to the XML file; could anyone advise me on how I can learn more about the two templates?
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adrian
Posts: 2879
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 4:01 pm

Re: Difference between <xsl:value-of> and <xsl:for-each>

Post by adrian »

Hi,

If you edit XSLT in Oxygen, you can hover the mouse pointer over an instruction and see a description of what it does.
For XSLT tutorials for beginners I recommend W3Schools:
XSLT <xsl:value-of> Element
XSLT <xsl:for-each> Element

Regards,
Adrian
Adrian Buza
<oXygen/> XML Editor, Schema Editor and XSLT Editor/Debugger
http://www.oxygenxml.com
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