Learning XSLT

Chapter 6. Copying Nodes

Sometimes when you are building a result tree, you just want to copy nodes out of an XML document without altering them. You can do this with the copy and copy-of instruction elements. You will learn about the differences in these two elements and how to use them in this chapter. I’ll start with the copy element.

The copy Element

You’ll be working with several XML documents relating to the European Union (EU) in the examples that follow. You can read more about the EU—in at least 12 different languages—at http://europa.eu.int/. The document eu.xml , Example 6-1, found in the directory examples/ch06, represents member states, founding member states, and candidate member states from the EU.

Example 6-1. An XML document listing EU member and candidate states

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- European Union member states and candidate states --> <eu> <member> <state>Austria</state> <state founding="yes">Belgium</state> <state>Denmark</state> <state>Finland</state> <state founding="yes">France</state> <state founding="yes">Germany</state> <state>Greece</state> <state>Ireland</state> <state founding="yes">Italy</state> <state founding="yes">Luxembourg</state> <state founding="yes">The Netherlands</state> <state>Portugal</state> <state>Spain</state> <state>Sweden</state> <state>United Kingdom</state> </member> <candidate> <state>Bulgaria</state> <state>Cyprus</state> <state>Czech Republic</state> <state>Estonia</state> <state>Hungary</state> <state>Latvia</state> ...