The <xsl:sort> Element

The <xsl:sort> element is used to sort the output.

Where to put the Sort Information

To output the XML file as an XHTML file, and sort it at the same time, simply add a sort element inside the for-each element in your XSL file:

<?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">
      <xsl:sort select="artist"/>
      <tr>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
        <td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
      </tr>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </table>
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

The select attribute indicates what XML element to sort on.

The Result

The result of the transformation will look like this:

My CD Collection

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

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:sort> element.

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