xml
  1. xml-xsl-if
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XML xsl:if

  • The xsl:if element is used in XSLT to conditionally process certain parts of an XML document.
  • It's similar to the if statement in programming languages.

Syntax

<xsl:if test="condition">
    <!--code to execute if the condition is true-->
</xsl:if>

The test attribute determines the condition to be tested. If the condition is true, the code within the xsl:if element is executed. If the condition is false, the code is skipped.

Example

Suppose we have an XML file with elements representing books:

<books>
    <book>
        <title>The Great Gatsby</title>
        <author>F. Scott Fitzgerald</author>
        <published>1925</published>
    </book>
    <book>
        <title>Animal Farm</title>
        <author>George Orwell</author>
        <published>1945</published>
    </book>
    <book>
        <title>To Kill a Mockingbird</title>
        <author>Harper Lee</author>
        <published>1960</published>
    </book>
</books>

Suppose we want to display only those books that were published before 1950. We can use xsl:if to achieve this:

<xsl:template match="/">
    <html>
        <body>
            <h2>Books published before 1950:</h2>
            <ul>
                <xsl:for-each select="books/book">
                    <xsl:if test="published &lt; 1950">
                        <li>
                            <xsl:value-of select="title"/>
                        </li>
                    </xsl:if>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </ul>
        </body>
    </html>
</xsl:template>

Here, we're using xsl:if to test whether the published element of each book is less than 1950. If it is, we display the title element within an li element.

Output

The output of the above XSLT code would be:

<html>
    <body>
        <h2>Books published before 1950:</h2>
        <ul>
            <li>The Great Gatsby</li>
            <li>Animal Farm</li>
        </ul>
    </body>
</html>

The output includes only those books that were published before 1950.

Explanation

The xsl:if element is used to conditionally process a part of an XML document. It tests a specified condition using the test attribute. If the condition is true, the code within the xsl:if element is executed. If false, the code is skipped.

In the example above, we're using xsl:if to test whether the published element of each book is less than 1950. If the condition is true, we display the title element of the book.

Use

The xsl:if element is commonly used in XSLT to conditionally process parts of an XML document. It's often used in conjunction with other XSLT elements like xsl:for-each and xsl:choose to create more complex processing logic.

Important Points

  • The xsl:if element is used to conditionally process parts of an XML document.
  • The test attribute determines the condition to be tested.
  • If the condition is true, the code within the xsl:if element is executed.
  • If false, the code is skipped.

Summary

The xsl:if element is a core XSLT element used to conditionally process parts of an XML document. It's used to test a specified condition and execute a block of code if it's true. It's often used in conjunction with other XSLT elements like xsl:for-each and xsl:choose to create more complex processing logic.

xsl:sortxsl:choose
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