# xsl:comment

The `xsl:comment` element can appear anywhere within an `xsl:template`. It indicates text that is to be output to the current output stream in the form of an XML or HTML comment.

The content of the comment may be given either by a `select` attribute or by an enclosed sequence constructor. If the `select` attribute is used and the value is a sequence, then the items in the sequence are output space-separated.

For example, the text below inserts some JavaScript into a generated HTML document:

    <script language="JavaScript">
        <xsl:comment>
            function bk(n) {
                parent.frames['content'].location="chap" + n + ".1.html";
            }
        //</xsl:comment>
    </script>

Note that special characters occurring within the comment text will not be escaped.

The `xsl:comment` element will normally contain text only but it may contain other elements such as xsl:if or xsl:value-of. However, it should not contain literal result elements.

Tip: the `xsl:comment` element can be very useful for debugging your stylesheet. Use comments in the generated output as a way of tracking which rules in the stylesheet were invoked to produce the output.

Expand | Next