How to add specific attribute to every node in Xml file using Xsl?

Question

I have a bit of Xml that looks something like this:

<books>
  <book id="1">
    <name>My book</name>
    <author>My author</author>
  </book>
  <book id="2">
    <name>My other book</name>
    <author>My other author</author>
  </book>
</books>

I would like to have it look like:

<books>
  <book id="1">
    <name id="1">My book</name>
    <author id="1">My author</author>
  </book>
  <book id="2">
    <name id="2">My other book</name>
    <author id="2">My other author</author>
  </book>
</books>

Could somebody point me in the correct direction?

Mads Hansen · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-30 01:50:15Z

4

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

    <!--Standard identity template that copies all content -->
    <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

    <!--special template for elements who's parent has an @id -->
    <xsl:template match="*[../@id]">
        <xsl:copy>
            <xsl:copy-of select="../@id" />
            <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
        </xsl:copy>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

answered Jun 30, 2010 at 1:50

Mads Hansen

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5 Comments

Dimitre Novatchev Over a year ago

+1 for the exact answer. I have only one issue with your writing style: it is always better not to use a reverse axis, if possible, in an XPath expression and particularly in match patterns. Instead of *[../@id] one can write: *[@id]/* . Not only is this shorter, but it is much more understandable.

Mads Hansen Over a year ago

@Dimitre - Thanks for the suggestion. It does read easier that way. Do you happen to know whether forward axis XPATH statements are generally more performant or is it mostly a concern of style/convention?

user357812 Over a year ago

Also, if you match last attribute for an element whos father has @id, you could reduce the template to just two copy

Dimitre Novatchev Over a year ago

I think that forard axis only expressions yield much better results when streaming a large XML document.

Richard O'Neil Over a year ago

I would like to thank everybody for their suggestions here. Mads, I am just learning Xsl and being able to see your code for this solution has taught me more than I have learned in the last 2 days struggling with this. I really appreciate it. This was exactly what I was trying to learn. Thanks again.

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