XSLT and XPATH: A Guide to XML Transformations

8.3. Using Variable References

Regardless of how a variable is declared, either with <xsl:variable> or <xsl:param>, or if it is overridden with <xsl:with-param>, the value bound to the variable is accessed using a variable reference.^[2] A variable reference is the mechanism used to retrieve the value of a variable. Variable reference takes the form $variable-name, where “variable-name” is the name of the variable declared using the name attribute on the declaring element. Note that this means the variable name is also by definition a QName.

^[2] Although variables are defined in XSLT, variable references are the realm of XPath because they are used in expressions.

The template rule in Example 8-3 declares a variable named myparent and gets its ...