# Pattern syntax

Saxon supports the full XSLT syntax for patterns. The rules below describe a simplified form of this syntax (for example, it omits the legal but useless pattern '@comment()'):

    pattern          ::= path ( '|' path )*
    path             ::= anchor? remainder? (Note 1)

    anchor           ::= '/' | '//' | id | key
    id               ::= 'id' '(' value ')'
    key              ::= 'key' '(' literal ',' value ')'
    value            ::= literal | variable-reference

    remainder        ::= path-part ( sep path-part )*
    sep              ::= '/' | '//'
    path-part        ::= node-match predicate+
    node-match       ::= element-match | text-match | attribute-match | pi-match | node-match
    element-match    ::= 'child::'? ( name | '*' )
    text-match       ::= 'text' '(' ')'
    attribute-match  ::= ('attribute::' | '@') ( name | '*' )
    pi-match         ::= 'processing-instruction' '(' literal? ')'
    node-match       ::= 'node' '(' ')'

    predicate        ::= '[' ( boolean-expression | numeric-expression ) ']'

Note 1: not all combinations are allowed. If the anchor is '//' then the remainder is mandatory.

The form of a literal is as defined in expressions; and a predicate is itself a boolean or numeric expression. As with predicates in expressions, a numeric predicate [P] is shorthand for the boolean predicate [position()=P].

Informally, a pattern consists of either a single path or a sequence of paths separated by vertical bars. An element matches the match-pattern if it matches any one of the paths.

A path consists of a sequence of path-parts separated by either "/" or "//". There is an optional separator ("/" or "//") at the start; a "//" has no effect and can be ignored. The last path-part may be an element-match, a text-match, an attribute-match, a pi-match, or a node-match; in practice, a path-part other than the last should be an element-match.

The axis syntax child:: and attribute:: may also be used in patterns, as described in the XSLT specification.

Expand | Next