XSLT Value-of

The xsl:value-of element is one of the most frequently used XSLT instructions. It selects a node using an XPath expression and outputs its text content into the result document. Whenever you need to extract and display a value from XML, xsl:value-of does the job.

Basic Syntax

<xsl:value-of select="XPath-expression"/>

The select attribute contains an XPath expression that points to the node whose value you want. The instruction is self-closing — it produces output but has no child content of its own.

Selecting Element Content

XML Source

<product>
  <name>Laptop Stand</name>
  <price>1299</price>
  <brand>Ergodesk</brand>
</product>

XSLT

<xsl:template match="product">
  <p>Product: <xsl:value-of select="name"/></p>
  <p>Brand: <xsl:value-of select="brand"/></p>
  <p>Price: <xsl:value-of select="price"/></p>
</xsl:template>

Output

Product: Laptop Stand
Brand: Ergodesk
Price: 1299

Selecting Attribute Values

Prefix the attribute name with @ to select its value.

XML Source

<employee id="E042" department="Finance">
  <name>Harini Subramanian</name>
</employee>

XSLT

<xsl:template match="employee">
  <p>ID: <xsl:value-of select="@id"/></p>
  <p>Dept: <xsl:value-of select="@department"/></p>
  <p>Name: <xsl:value-of select="name"/></p>
</xsl:template>

Output

ID: E042
Dept: Finance
Name: Harini Subramanian

Selecting from Parent or Sibling Nodes

<!-- Current node's text -->
<xsl:value-of select="."/>

<!-- Parent element's text -->
<xsl:value-of select=".."/>

<!-- A sibling element -->
<xsl:value-of select="../siblingName"/>

Using XPath Functions with value-of

<!-- Convert text to uppercase -->
<xsl:value-of select="translate(name, 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz',
                               'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ')"/>

<!-- Count child elements -->
<xsl:value-of select="count(items/item)"/>

<!-- String length -->
<xsl:value-of select="string-length(description)"/>

<!-- Concatenate strings -->
<xsl:value-of select="concat(firstName, ' ', lastName)"/>

disable-output-escaping

By default, xsl:value-of escapes special characters — < becomes &lt; in the output. If your XML contains stored HTML (like in a CDATA section) and you want the HTML to render, set disable-output-escaping to "yes".

<xsl:value-of select="description" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

xsl:value-of vs xsl:copy-of

<!-- Outputs only "Hello World" -->
<xsl:value-of select="greeting"/>

<!-- Outputs <greeting>Hello World</greeting> with the tag -->
<xsl:copy-of select="greeting"/>

Complete Working Example

XML: invoice.xml

<invoice id="INV-2024-001" date="2024-03-15">
  <customer>Meena Sundar</customer>
  <items>
    <item><name>USB-C Hub</name><qty>2</qty><unitPrice>850</unitPrice></item>
    <item><name>Monitor Stand</name><qty>1</qty><unitPrice>1200</unitPrice></item>
  </items>
  <total>2900</total>
</invoice>

XSLT

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html><body>
    <h2>Invoice <xsl:value-of select="invoice/@id"/></h2>
    <p>Date: <xsl:value-of select="invoice/@date"/></p>
    <p>Customer: <xsl:value-of select="invoice/customer"/></p>
    <p>Total: INR <xsl:value-of select="invoice/total"/></p>
  </body></html>
</xsl:template>

Output

Invoice INV-2024-001
Date: 2024-03-15
Customer: Meena Sundar
Total: INR 2900

Key Points to Remember

• xsl:value-of extracts the text value of a node specified by the select XPath expression.
• Use @attributeName to select attribute values.
• Use "." to reference the current node's text content.
• XPath functions like concat(), count(), and string-length() work inside the select attribute.
• disable-output-escaping="yes" outputs raw HTML stored in XML without escaping.
• xsl:copy-of copies the entire node including child elements; xsl:value-of copies only text.

Using xsl:value-of to Output Computed Values

xsl:value-of works with any XPath expression that evaluates to a string or number. You can embed calculations, function calls, and complex path expressions directly in the select attribute.

Computing a Total Price

<xsl:template match="cartItem">
  <p>
    <xsl:value-of select="productName"/> x
    <xsl:value-of select="quantity"/> =
    INR <xsl:value-of select="unitPrice * quantity"/>
  </p>
</xsl:template>

Displaying a Formatted Date Component

<!-- Extract year from a date like "2024-03-15" -->
<xsl:value-of select="substring(orderDate, 1, 4)"/>

Counting Child Elements

<p>This order contains
  <xsl:value-of select="count(items/item)"/> item(s).
</p>

Displaying Concatenated Names

<xsl:value-of select="concat(firstName, ' ', lastName, ' (', department, ')')"/>
<!-- Output: Priya Mehta (Engineering) -->

Best Practices for xsl:value-of

• Always verify the selected node exists before using xsl:value-of — an empty node-set outputs an empty string without errors.
• Use normalize-space() when displaying user-entered data that may contain extra spaces.
• For numeric display, consider formatting with format-number() in XSLT 1.0: format-number(price, '#,##0.00') produces "1,299.00".
• Avoid using xsl:value-of on elements that contain child elements — it concatenates all descendant text, which may produce unexpected output.