• The 25 XPath function are extended by XSLT 1.0 to make 36 in total
  • conversions (eg, number())
  • string manipulation (eg, concat())
  • arithmetic (eg, floor(), sum())
  • getting node and identifier names (eg, lang())
  • boolean (eg, not())
  • context information (eg, last())

Alpahabetic List

Numeric Functions

XPath provides some functions to aid the calculation of numeric values:

number()

Converts a string to a number, use it to be precise.

round()

Converts value to a number, round to nearest integer

• round(1.6) is 2; round(1.4) is 1; round(1.5) is 2

ceiling()

Converts value to a number, round up to next highest integer

• ceiling(1.6) is 2; ceiling(2) is 2; ceiling(-1.6) is -1

floor()

Converts value to a number, round down to next lowest integer

• floor(1.6) is 1; floor(2) is 2; floor(-1.6) is -2

sum()

Converts the string value of each node in the node-set to a number and sum these numbers

count()

Returns the number of nodes in the node-set

String Manipulation

concat(string1 , string2 , string3,   ..  , stringn)
contains(string , substring)
normalize-space(string)
starts-with(string , substring)

The string parameter defines the string to which the function is applied. The substring parameter defines the operation to be performed. Frequently the result is a new string

concat

Concatenates all the strings together

contains

Returns true if substring part of string

normalize-space

Removes leading and trailing whitespace characters and replaces sequences of whitespace characters with a single space character

starts-with

Result is true if the string starts with the substring specified

string-length(string)
substring(string , numstart , numchars)
substring-before(string , substring)
substring-after(string , substring)
translate(string, fromchars , tochars)

string-length

The number of characters in the string is returned

substring

Counting from 1, the substring of length numchars starting at position numstart is returned

substring-before

The substring before the specified substring is returned

substring-after

The substring after the specified substring is returned

translate

Characters appearing in the fromchars parameter are replaced by the corresponding character in the tochars parameter otherwise the character is copied. If no character in tochars for the fromchars it is omitted

Tests and Conversions

boolean(value)           number(value)            string(value)
false()                  true()                   not(value)

boolean

If value is a number, 0 converts to false, anything else to true

Zero-length string and empty node-set convert to false

number

Boolean value: false becomes 0 and true becomes 1.

String value: Removes trailing and leading whitespace then converts to a number. Note + is not allowed but - is.

Node-set gets converted to string and then to a number.

string

Boolean values get turned to strings true and false. Numbers get converted to strings. A node-set gets converted to the value of the first node.

false

Returns value false

true

Returns value true

not

The input value is converted to a Boolean and then negated

Context Functions

position()
last()

position

The position of the current node in the set of nodes being processed. For xsl:for-each or xsl:apply-templates, the order of the set of nodes after any xsl:sort elements have been applied

last

Returns a number that defines the number of nodes being processed. For xsl:for-each or xsl:apply-templates, it is the number of nodes in the node-set being processed

Formatting Numbers

format-number(value, pattern)

Formats value with format defined by pattern. Result is a string:

• 0 : indicates a digit will be placed here
• # : indicates a digit will be placed here if it is not a leading zero
• . : indicates where the decimal point is
• , : indicates where a grouping character will appear

Look up the standard or read a book if you need anything more complex!

Formatting

• Be careful with regard to file size if you are doing real arithmetic
• Numbers may get stored to a large number of decimal places
• Formatting keeps the accuracy down to what is required and reduces file size