xsl:value-of

Evaluates an expression as a string, and outputs its value to the current result tree.

Category: instruction
Content: sequence-constructor
Permitted parent elements: any XSLT element whose content model is sequence-constructor; any literal result element

Attributes

select?

expression

Identifes the expression. If this is not specified, the value to be output is obtained by evaluating the sequence constructor contained within the xsl:value-of element. The full syntax of expressions is outlined in XPath syntax. Here are some examples of expressions that can be used in the select attribute:

Expression	Value
`TITLE`	The character content of all `TITLE` child elements if there are any
`@NAME`	The value of the `NAME` attribute of the current element if there is one
`.`	The expanded character content of the current element
`../TITLE`	The expanded character content of all `TITLE` child elements of the parent element, if there are any
`ancestor::SECTION/TITLE`	The expanded character content of all `TITLE` child elements of all enclosing `SECTION` elements, if there are any
`ancestor::*/TITLE`	The expanded character content of all `TITLE` child elements of all enclosing elements that have a child element named `TITLE`
`PERSON[@ID]`	The content of all `PERSON` child elements having an `ID` attribute, if there are any
`*[last()]/@ID`	The value of the `ID` attribute of the last child element of any type, if there are any
`.//TITLE`	The content of all `TITLE` descendant elements if there are any
`sum(*/@SALES)`	The numeric total of the values of the `SALES` attributes of all child elements that have a `SALES` attribute

separator?

{ string }

The separator defaults to a single space if the select attribute is used, or to a zero-length string if a sequence constructor is used. The separator attribute may be specified as an attribute value template.

cdata?

{ boolean }

New in XSLT 4.0. Used to request serialization of a text node as a CDATA section.

[disable-output-escaping]?

boolean

If set to yes, special characters such as "<" and "&" will be output as themselves, not as entities. Be aware that in general this can produce non-well-formed XML, HTML, or JSON. It is useful, however, when generating things such as ASP or JSP pages. The default is no.

Saxon availability

Available in XSLT 1.0 and later versions. Available in all Saxon editions. Available for all platforms.

Notes on the Saxon implementation

The XSLT 4.0 attribute cdata is implemented since Saxon 13.

Details

If the select expression evaluates to a sequence containing more than one item, the result depends on whether a separator attribute is present. When running in XSLT 1.0 mode, if the separator is absent then only the first item is considered. Otherwise all the items are output. The separator defaults to a single space if the select attribute is used, or to a zero-length string if a sequence constructor is used.

Links to W3C specifications

XSLT 3.0 Specification

XSLT 4.0 Specification