XSLT, 2nd Edition

Name

last()

Returns the position of the last node in the current context. This function is useful for defining templates for the last occurrence of a given element or for testing whether a given node is the last in the node-set to which it belongs.

Syntax

[1.0] number last()
[2.0] xs:integer last()

Inputs

None.

Output

A number equal to the number of nodes in the current context. For example, if the current context contains 12 <li> nodes, last() returns 12.

Defined in

[1.0] XPath section 4.1, “Node Set Functions.”

[2.0] XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators section 16, “Context Functions.”

Example

We’ll use the last() function to handle the last item in a list in a special way. Here’s the XML document we’ll use:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- albums.xml -->
<list xml:lang="en">
  <title>Albums I've bought recently:</title>
  <listitem>The Sacred Art of Dub</listitem>
  <listitem>Only the Poor Man Feel It</listitem>
  <listitem>Excitable Boy</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="sw">Aki Special</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="en-gb">Combat Rock</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="zu">Talking Timbuktu</listitem>
  <listitem xml:lang="jz">The Birth of the Cool</listitem>
</list>

Here is the stylesheet that handles the last <listitem> in the list differently:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- last.xsl --> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="text"/> <xsl:template match="/"> <xsl:text>&#xA;A test of the last() function:&#xA;</xsl:text> <xsl:for-each select="list/listitem"> ...