The <xsl:choose> Element

The <xsl:choose> element is used in conjunction with <xsl:when> and <xsl:otherwise> to express multiple conditional tests.

Where to put the Choose Condition

To insert a conditional choose test against the content of the XML file, simply add the <xsl:choose>, <xsl:when>, and <xsl:otherwise> elements to your XSL document like this:

<xsl:choose>
   <xsl:when test="price>'10'">
      ... some code ...
   </xsl:when>
   <xsl:otherwise>
      ... some code ....
   </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

Look at the adjusted XSL style sheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
  <body>
    <h2>My CD Collection</h2>
    <table border="1">
      <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
        <th>Title</th>
        <th>Artist</th>
      </tr>
      <xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
      <tr>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
      	<xsl:choose>
          <xsl:when test="price&gt;'10'">
            <td bgcolor="#ff00ff">
            <xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
          </xsl:when>
          <xsl:otherwise>
            <td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
          </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
      </tr>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </table>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

The code above will add a pink background-color to the artist column WHEN the price of the cd is higher than 10.

The Result

The result of the transformation will look like this:

My CD Collection

Title	Artist
Empire Burlesque	Bob Dylan
Hide your heart	Bonnie Tyler
Greatest Hits	Dolly Parton
Still got the blues	Gary Moore
Eros	Eros Ramazzotti
One night only	Bee Gees
Sylvias Mother	Dr.Hook
Maggie May	Rod Stewart
Romanza	Andrea Bocelli
When a man loves a woman	Percy Sledge
Black angel	Savage Rose
1999 Grammy Nominees	Many
For the good times	Kenny Rogers
Big Willie style	Will Smith
Tupelo Honey	Van Morrison
Soulsville	Jorn Hoel
The very best of	Cat Stevens
Stop	Sam Brown
Bridge of Spies	T`Pau
Private Dancer	Tina Turner
Midt om natten	Kim Larsen
Pavarotti Gala Concert	Luciano Pavarotti
The dock of the bay	Otis Redding
Picture book	Simply Red
Red	The Communards
Unchain my heart	Joe Cocker

If you have Netscape 6 or IE 5 or higher you can view: the XML file and the XSL file.

View the result with Netscape 6 or IE 6

Note: Unable to view the result in IE 5, because the "http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl" namespace does not understand the <xsl:choose> element.

Another Example

Here is another example that contains several <xsl:when> elements:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
  <body>
    <h2>My CD Collection</h2>
    <table border="1">
      <tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
        <th>Title</th>
        <th>Artist</th>
      </tr>
      <xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
      <tr>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
      	<xsl:choose>
          <xsl:when test="price&gt;'10'">
            <td bgcolor="#ff00ff">
            <xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
          </xsl:when>
          <xsl:when test="price&gt;'9' and price&lt;='10'">
            <td bgcolor="#cccccc">
            <xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
          </xsl:when>
          <xsl:otherwise>
            <td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
          </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
      </tr>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </table>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

The code above will add a pink background color to the artist column WHEN the price of the cd is higher than 10, and a grey background-color WHEN the price of the cd is higher than 9 and lower or equal to 10.

The Result

The result of the transformation will look like this:

My CD Collection

Title	Artist
Empire Burlesque	Bob Dylan
Hide your heart	Bonnie Tyler
Greatest Hits	Dolly Parton
Still got the blues	Gary Moore
Eros	Eros Ramazzotti
One night only	Bee Gees
Sylvias Mother	Dr.Hook
Maggie May	Rod Stewart
Romanza	Andrea Bocelli
When a man loves a woman	Percy Sledge
Black angel	Savage Rose
1999 Grammy Nominees	Many
For the good times	Kenny Rogers
Big Willie style	Will Smith
Tupelo Honey	Van Morrison
Soulsville	Jorn Hoel
The very best of	Cat Stevens
Stop	Sam Brown
Bridge of Spies	T`Pau
Private Dancer	Tina Turner
Midt om natten	Kim Larsen
Pavarotti Gala Concert	Luciano Pavarotti
The dock of the bay	Otis Redding
Picture book	Simply Red
Red	The Communards
Unchain my heart	Joe Cocker

If you have Netscape 6 or IE 5 or higher you can view: the XML file and the XSL file.

View the result with Netscape 6 or IE 6

Note: Unable to view the result in IE 5, because the "http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl" namespace does not understand the <xsl:choose> element.

Jump to: Top of Page or HOME or Printer friendly page

Search W3Schools:

What Others Say About Us

Does the world know about us? Check out these places:

Dogpile Alta Vista MSN Google Excite Lycos Yahoo Ask Jeeves

We Help You For Free. You Can Help Us!

W3Schools is for training only. We do not warrant its correctness or its fitness for use. The risk of using it remains entirely with the user. While using this site, you agree to have read and accepted our terms of use and privacy policy.

How we converted to XHTML

Password Protect
Your Web Pages

Your own Web Site?

Read W3Schools
Hosting Tutorial

$15 Domain Name
Registration
Save $20 / year!

Advertise
at W3Schools

Only 0.5 CPM

SELECTED LINKS

University Online
Master Degree
Bachelor Degree

Web Software

The Future of
Web Development

Jobs and Careers

Web Security
Web Statistics
Web Standards

PARTNERS

W3Schools
TopXML
VisualBuilder
XMLPitstop
DevelopersDex
DevGuru
Programmers Heaven
The Code Project
Tek Tips Forum
ZVON.ORG
TopXML Search