name()

Description

name() returns the qualified name of a node — the same string that appears in the source document, including the namespace prefix if one was used. For an element declared as <xhtml:div>, name() returns "xhtml:div".

When called without an argument, it returns the qualified name of the context node. When called with a node-set, it returns the qualified name of the first node in document order.

For nodes that have no name (text nodes, comment nodes, document nodes), name() returns the empty string "". Processing instruction nodes return the PI target.

Note that the prefix returned by name() is the prefix used in the source document, which may differ from the prefix declared in the stylesheet. If you need a namespace-safe comparison, use namespace-uri() and local-name() separately rather than relying on prefix equality.

Parameters

Return value

xs:string — the qualified name of the node as used in the source document, or "" for unnamed nodes.

Examples

Report element and attribute names

Input XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<catalog xmlns:ns="http://example.com/ns">
  <ns:item id="1" ns:category="book">
    <ns:title>XML in Practice</ns:title>
  </ns:item>
</catalog>

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="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="/catalog">
    <names>
      <xsl:for-each select="//ns:item" xmlns:ns="http://example.com/ns">
        <element name="{name()}"/>
        <xsl:for-each select="@*">
          <attribute name="{name()}"/>
        </xsl:for-each>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </names>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

<names>
  <element name="ns:item"/>
  <attribute name="id"/>
  <attribute name="ns:category"/>
</names>

Dynamic dispatch based on element name

Input XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<form>
  <text-field>username</text-field>
  <password-field>secret</password-field>
  <text-field>email</text-field>
</form>

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="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="/form">
    <fields>
      <xsl:for-each select="*">
        <field type="{name()}">
          <xsl:value-of select="."/>
        </field>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </fields>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

<fields>
  <field type="text-field">username</field>
  <field type="password-field">secret</field>
  <field type="text-field">email</field>
</fields>

Notes

• name() returns the prefix-qualified name as written in the source document. Two documents can use different prefixes for the same namespace URI; therefore, do not compare name() values across documents when namespaces are involved.
• For namespace-safe identity comparisons, use namespace-uri() = 'http://...' and local-name() = 'foo'.
• name() and local-name() return the same value for unprefixed nodes.
• In XSLT 2.0+, fn:name() is unchanged but the argument must be zero or one node; node-sets with multiple items raise a type error.

See also

• local-name()
• namespace-uri()