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XSL - XSLT Instructions

In the following, supported and not supported XSLT instructions of the SAP XSLT processor are listed. The URI for the XSLT namespace is http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform.

Top-level Elements  

Element	Attributes	Description
xsl:key	name match use	Declares keys.
xsl:import	href	See below.
xsl:include	href	See below.
xsl:output	method version encoding omit-xml-declaration standalone doctype-public doctype-system cdata-section-elements indent media-type	Specifies how the result tree is output. Note: The cdata-section-elements attribute is not supported.
xsl:param	name select	Binds a variable to a default value. Note: XSLT types can be assigned to a parameter using the sap:type attribute. The following values can be used: string, number, boolean, node-set, external, and xstring. A type conversion is triggered in ABAP. Example: In ABAP, a date is passed as string '2001-05-16'. The parameter declaration in XSLT is xsl:param name="p" sap:type="number". The date is first converted to a number in ABAP (number of days from 0001-01-01). The number is then passed to the XSLT program.
xsl:preserve-space	elements	Adds an element to the set of whitespace-preserving element names.
xsl:strip-space	elements	Removes an element from the set of whitespace-preserving element names.
xsl:template	match name priority mode	See below.
xsl:variable	name select	See below.

Template Elements  

Creating the Result Tree  

Element	Attributes	Description
xsl:attribute	name namespace	Adds an attribute to a result element.
xsl:comment	-	Creates a comment node in the result tree.
xsl:copy	use-attribute-sets	Copies the current node without attributes and child nodes. Note: The use-attributes-sets attribute is not supported.
xsl:copy-of	select	Inserts a result tree fragment into the result tree.
xsl:element	name namespace use-attribute-sets	Creates an element node in the result tree. Note: The use-attributes-sets attribute is not supported. The element name QName is not validated. Namespace declarations are not necessarily copied to the result tree. If a namespace attribute is specified in the element instruction, no namespace node is created in the result tree unless a URI must be declared. If the namespace attribute contains a prefix, it is not necessarily used. If a namespace attribute is not specified in the element instruction, all namespace declarations are copied to the created element in the result tree. A prefix specified in the namespace attribute is also used in the result node.
xsl:processing-instruction	name	Creates a processing instruction node.
xsl:text	disable-output-escaping	Writes literal data characters.
xsl:value-of	select disable-output-escaping	Creates a text node in the result tree.

Flow Control  

Element	Attributes	Description
xsl:choose	-	Selects one alternative. It is used with a sequence of xsl:when elements and an optional xsl:otherwise element.
xsl:for-each	select	Specifies a template for each selected node.
xsl:if	test	Contains a template that is instantiated if the evaluated expression is true.
xsl:otherwise	-	Specifies a default content template.
xsl:sort	select lang data-type order case-order	Sorts the output structure. Note: The lang attribute is ignored.
xsl:variable	name select	Binds a variable to a value. Note: The instruction xsl:variable name="x" within the scope of another variable declaration of x can cause a syntax error. x can still be referenced after it is bound and if it is outside of its scope. The following is allowed: <A><xsl:variable name="x"  select="..."/></A> <xsl:value-of select="$x"/>
xsl:when	test	Selects the first content template of a test that is true.

Defining and Calling Template Rules  

Element	Attributes	Description
xsl:apply-templates	select mode	Processes selected nodes.
xsl:call-template	name	Calls a specified template.
xsl:param	name select	Binds a variable to a default value.
xsl:template	match name priority mode	Defines a template rule. Note: In addition to patterns in the specification, appropriate match patterns are accepted. Example: (A|B)/C.
xsl:with-param	name select	Passes a parameter to a template and replaces the value of the variable binding.

Style Sheets and Structuring  

Element	Attributes	Description
xsl:apply-imports	-	Processes the current node and applies the template rule of the imported stylesheet. Note: Parameters can be passed to the called template in the same way as for xsl:apply-templates using xsl:with-param.
xsl:import	href	Imports another XSLT stylesheet. Note: Import units are defined as nodes in the import tree. The relationship imports to is defined between the import units through the (transitive) relationship in the import tree. Example: Program Y is imported into program X if the import unit of program Y was imported into the import unit of program X.
xsl:include	href	Includes another XSLT stylesheet. Note: The inclusion uses the name of the repository instead of a URL. The name is specified in the sap:name attribute. The href attribute no longer applies in this case.
xsl:stylesheet	id extension-element-prefixes exclude-result-prefixes version	Represents a stylesheet. Note: The extension-element-prefixes attribute is not supported.
xsl:transform	id extension-element-prefixes exclude-result-prefixes version	Synonym for xsl:stylesheet.

Output  

Element	Attributes	Description
xsl:message	terminate	Sends a message to report errors.

Not Supported Elements  

Element	Alternative
xsl:attribute-set	Use the xsl:attribute element or literal result attributes.
xsl:decimal-format	Use the position() function or a parameter as a counter.
xsl:fallback	-
xsl:namespace-alias	Use the xsl:element element.
xsl:number	Use the position() function or a parameter as a counter.