Webmaster in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

<xsl:counters>

Synopsis

<xsl:counters name=" string " format=" format "/>

Description

Provides a named counter that appears in the result tree. The counter is formatted according to the string given using the format attribute. It can be initialized using the <xsl:counter-reset> element and incremented using the <xsl:counter-increment/> element. This differs from the <xsl:counter> element in that it maintains a counter for each level of ancestry it encounters. For example:

<xsl:template match="header" >
  <fo:block>
    <xsl:counter-increment name="head"/>
    <xsl:counters name="head" format="1.1. "/>
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </fo:block>
  <xsl:counter-reset name="head"/>
</xsl:template>

Here, if we have a document as follows:

<header>The Long Road Home</header>
<header>Joyful Reunions</header>

the counter would return the following result: (1, 2). However, if we had nested levels of the <header> element, such as:

<header>The Long Road Home
  <header>Starting the Long Road</header>
  <header>Halfway There</header>
</header>
<header>Joyful Reunions
  <header>Starting the Long Road</header>
  <header>Halfway There</header>
</header>

the counter returns the result (1, 1.1, 1.2, 2, 2.1, 2.2) for the <header> elements that it encounters.