XSLT Reference

xsl:break

XSLT 3.0 element

Exits an xsl:iterate loop early and returns an optional final value, enabling efficient early-termination patterns over large sequences.

Syntax

<xsl:break select="expression"/>

Description

xsl:break terminates an xsl:iterate loop before the sequence is exhausted. When a break fires, the iteration stops immediately and the value supplied in the select attribute (or the content sequence constructor) becomes the result of the entire xsl:iterate expression. If no select or content is given, the result is the empty sequence.

This enables patterns like “find the first matching item”, “accumulate a running total until a threshold is crossed”, or “process records until a sentinel value is found” — all without pre-filtering the input or using a recursive named template.

xsl:break must appear inside xsl:iterate. It can be conditionally executed inside xsl:if or xsl:choose. Any xsl:on-completion block in the same xsl:iterate is skipped when a break occurs.

The select expression (or content) that provides the break value is evaluated in the context of the current iteration, after the current iteration’s body has partially executed up to the xsl:break instruction. Parameters updated by xsl:next-iteration before the break instruction are visible in the select expression.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`select`	expression	No	The value to return as the result of the `xsl:iterate`. If absent, the content sequence constructor is used.

Examples

Finding the first record above a threshold

Input XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<readings>
  <reading sensor="A" value="12"/>
  <reading sensor="B" value="45"/>
  <reading sensor="C" value="103"/>
  <reading sensor="D" value="78"/>
</readings>

Stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="3.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template match="/readings">
    <xsl:variable name="first-alert">
      <xsl:iterate select="reading">
        <xsl:if test="xs:integer(@value) gt 100">
          <xsl:break select="."/>
        </xsl:if>
        <xsl:next-iteration/>
      </xsl:iterate>
    </xsl:variable>
    <alert>
      <xsl:choose>
        <xsl:when test="$first-alert/reading">
          <sensor><xsl:value-of select="$first-alert/reading/@sensor"/></sensor>
          <value><xsl:value-of select="$first-alert/reading/@value"/></value>
        </xsl:when>
        <xsl:otherwise>No alert threshold exceeded.</xsl:otherwise>
      </xsl:choose>
    </alert>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output:

<alert>
  <sensor>C</sensor>
  <value>103</value>
</alert>

Accumulating a running total until a budget is exhausted