XPath - Root Node

Following are the ways to get root element and do the processing afterwards.

Use Wildcard

Use /* , wild card expression to select the root node.

<p><xsl:value-of select = "name(/*)"/></p>

Use Name

Use /class, to select root node by name.

<p><xsl:value-of select = "name(/class)"/></p>

Use Name with wild card

Use /class/*, select all element under root node.

<p><xsl:value-of select = "name(/class/*)"/></p>

Example

In this example, we've created a sample XML document, students.xml and its stylesheet document students.xsl which uses the XPath expressions.

Following is the sample XML used.

students.xml

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type = "text/xsl" href = "students.xsl"?>
<class>
   <student rollno = "393">
      <firstname>Dinkar</firstname>
      <lastname>Kad</lastname>
      <nickname>Dinkar</nickname>
      <marks>85</marks>
   </student>
   <student rollno = "493">
      <firstname>Vaneet</firstname>
      <lastname>Gupta</lastname>
      <nickname>Vinni</nickname>
      <marks>95</marks>
   </student>
   <student rollno = "593">
      <firstname>Jasvir</firstname>
      <lastname>Singh</lastname>
      <nickname>Jazz</nickname>
      <marks>90</marks>
   </student>
</class>

students.xsl

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version = "1.0"
   xmlns:xsl = "http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">  
	
   <xsl:template match = "/">
      <html>
         <body>
            <h3>Root Element. Xpath expression  =  "/*"</h3>
            <p><xsl:value-of select = "name(/*)"/></p>
            <h3>Root Element. Xpath expression = "/class"</h3>
            <p> <xsl:value-of select = "name(/class)"/></p>
            <h3>Details of each Students. Xpath expression = "/class/*"</h3>
				
            <table border = "1">
               <tr bgcolor = "#9acd32">
                  <th>Roll No</th>
                  <th>First Name</th>
                  <th>Last Name</th>
                  <th>Nick Name</th>
                  <th>Marks</th>
               </tr>	
					
               <xsl:for-each select = "/class/*">
                  <tr>
                     <td><xsl:value-of select = "@rollno"/></td>
                     <td><xsl:value-of select = "firstname"/></td>
                     <td><xsl:value-of select = "lastname"/></td>
                     <td><xsl:value-of select = "nickname"/></td>
                     <td><xsl:value-of select = "marks"/></td>
                  </tr>
               </xsl:for-each>
            </table> 
         </body>
      </html>
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Verify the output

xpath_nodes.htm