last()

Description

last() returns an integer equal to the context size — the total number of nodes in the node-set (or items in the sequence) currently being processed. It takes no arguments.

The most common use cases are:

• Detecting the last item in a loop to apply different formatting (e.g., omitting a trailing separator).
• Building predicates like item[last()] to select only the final element in a set.
• Combining with position() to produce row counts or progress labels.

The value of last() changes with the context. Inside xsl:for-each, it reflects the number of items selected by the select attribute. Inside a template triggered by xsl:apply-templates, it reflects the number of nodes sent to that template call.

Return value

xs:integer — the total number of items in the current context sequence.

Examples

Omit trailing comma

Input XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<colors>
  <color>Red</color>
  <color>Green</color>
  <color>Blue</color>
</colors>

Stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output method="text"/>

  <xsl:template match="/colors">
    <xsl:for-each select="color">
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
      <xsl:if test="position() != last()">, </xsl:if>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

Red, Green, Blue

Select only the last element

Stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output method="text"/>

  <xsl:template match="/colors">
    <xsl:value-of select="color[last()]"/>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

Blue

Notes

• last() and position() are context-dependent. Their values inside a predicate differ from their values in the body of xsl:for-each — predicates establish their own context.
• In XSLT 2.0+ with typed sequences, last() still works the same way but the context is an xs:integer-typed sequence size.
• A common mistake is calling last() outside any iterating context; at the top level of a template, it returns 1 (the single context node).

See also

• position()
• count()