The <xsl:for-each> Element

The <xsl:for-each> element allows you to do looping in XSL!

The <xsl:for-each> Element

The XSL <xsl:for-each> element can be used to select every XML element of a specified node set:

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

</xsl:stylesheet>

Note: The value of the required select attribute contains an XPath expression. It works like navigating a file system where a forward slash (/) selects subdirectories.

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 More
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

View the result with IE 5

Filtering the Output

We can filter the output from an XML file by adding a criteria to the select attribute in the <xsl:for-each> element.

<xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd[artist='Bob Dylan']">

Legal filter operators are:

= (equal)
!= (not equal)
< less than
> greater than

Take a 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[artist='Bob Dylan']">
   <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 Result

The result of the transformation will look like this:

My CD Collection

Title	Artist
Empire Burlesque	Bob Dylan

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

View the result with IE 5

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